Sample records for mannosylated cell wall

Full Text Available The fungal cellwall contains glycoproteins that interact with the host immune system. In the prominent pathogenic yeast Candida albicans, Pmr1 acts as a Golgi-resident ion pump that provides cofactors to mannosyltransferases, regulating the synthesis of mannans attached to glycoproteins. To gain insight into a putative conservation of such a crucial process within opportunistic yeasts, we were particularly interested in studying the role of the PMR1 homolog in a low-virulent species that rarely causes candidiasis, Candida guilliermondii. We disrupted C. guilliermondii PMR1 and found that loss of Pmr1 affected cell growth and morphology, biofilm formation, susceptibility to cellwall perturbing agents, mannan levels, and the wall composition and organization. Despite there was a significant increment in the amount of β1,3-glucan exposed at the wall surface, this positively influenced only the ability of the mutant to stimulate IL-10 production by human monocytes, suggesting that recognition of both mannan and β1,3-glucan, is required to stimulate strong levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Accordingly, our results indicate C. guilliermondii sensing by monocytes was critically dependent on the recognition of N-linked mannans and β1,3-glucan, as reported in other Candida species. In addition, chemical remotion of cellwall O-linked mannans was found to positively influence the recognition of C. guilliermondii by human monocytes, suggesting that O-linked mannans mask other cellwall components from immune cells. This observation contrasts with that reported in C. albicans. Finally, mice infected with C. guilliermondii pmr1 null mutant cells had significantly lower fungal burdens compared to animals challenged with the parental strain. Accordingly, the null mutant showed inability to kill larvae in the Galleria mellonella infection model. This study thus demonstrates that mannans are relevant for the C. guilliermondii-host interaction, with

Full Text Available Xun Sun, Simu Chen, Jianfeng Han, Zhirong ZhangKey Laboratory of Drug Targeting and Drug Delivery System, Ministry of Education, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of ChinaBackground: To establish a potential gene-delivery system with the ability to deliver plasmid DNA to dendritic cells (DCs more efficiently and specifically, we designed and synthesized a low-molecular-weight polyethyleneimine and triethyleneglycol polymer (PEI–TEG and a series of its mannosylated derivatives.Methods: PEI–TEG was synthesized from PEI2000 and PEI600 with TEG as the cross-linker. PEI–TEG was then linked to mannose via a phenylisothiocyanate bridge to obtain man-PEI–TEG conjugates. The DNA conveyance abilities of PEI–TEG, man-PEI–TEG, as well as control PEI25k were evaluated by measuring their zeta potential, particle size, and DNA-binding abilities. The in vitro cytotoxicity, cell uptake, and transfection efficiency of these PEI/DNA complexes were examined on the DC2.4 cell line. Finally, a maturation experiment evaluated the effect of costimulatory molecules CD40, CD80, and CD86 on murine bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs using flow cytometry.Results: PEI–TEG and man-PEI–TEG were successfully synthesized and were shown to retain the excellent properties of PEI25k for condensing DNA. Compared with PEI–TEG as well as PEI25k, the man-PEI–TEG had less cytotoxicity and performed better in both cellular uptake and transfection assays in vitro. The results of the maturation experiment showed that all the PEI/DNA complexes induced an adequate upregulation of surface markers for DC maturation.Conclusion: These results demonstrated that man-PEI–TEG can be employed as a DC-targeting gene-delivery system.Keywords: dendritic cells, DCs, mannose, polyethyleneimine, PEI, gene delivery

To construct mannosylated liposomes/protamine/DNA (LPD) carriers for DNA vaccine targeting to dendritic cells (DCs), a mannosylated cholesterol derivative (Man-C6-Chol) was synthesized via simple ester linkage and amide bonds. Then, the Man-C6-Chol was applied to LPD formulation as a synthetic ligand. The physicochemical properties of mannosylated LPD (Man-LPD) were first evaluated, including the size and zeta potential, morphology and the ability to protect DNA against DNase I degradation. Man-LPD showed a small size with a stable viral-like structure. In comparison to non-mannose liposomes/LPD (Man-free liposomes/LPD), mannosylated liposomes/LPD (Man-liposomes/Man-LPD) exhibited higher efficiency in both intracellular uptake (2.3-fold) and transfection (4.5-fold) in vitro. Subsequent MTT assays indicated that the LPD carriers had low toxicity on the tested cells. Afterwards, the investigation into the maturation activation on primary bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) showed that both Man-LPD and Man-free LPD induced remarkable up-regulation of CD80, CD86 and CD40 on BMDCs. Inspired by these studies, we can conclude that the synthetic mannosylated LPD targeting to DCs was a potential carrier for DNA vaccine. (paper)

The cellwall proteins of fungi are modified by N- and O-linked mannosylation and phosphomannosylation, resulting in changes to the physical and immunological properties of the cell. Glycosylation of cellwall proteins involves the activities of families of endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi-located

Glycosylation is the most abundant post-translational polypeptide chain modification in nature. Although carbohydrate modification of protein antigens from many microbial pathogens constitutes important components of B cell epitopes, the role in T cell immunity is not completely understood. Here, using ELISPOT and polychromatic flow cytometry, we show that O-mannosylation of the adhesin, Apa, of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is crucial for its T cell antigenicity in humans and mice after infection. However, subunit vaccination with both mannosylated and non-mannosylated Apa induced a comparable magnitude and quality of T cell response and imparted similar levels of protection against Mtb challenge in mice. Both forms equally improved waning BCG vaccine-induced protection in elderly mice after subunit boosting. Thus, O-mannosylation of Apa is required for antigenicity but appears to be dispensable for its immunogenicity and protective efficacy in mice. These results have implications for the development of subunit vaccines using post-translationally modified proteins such as glycoproteins against infectious diseases like tuberculosis.

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) play a vital role in activation of anti-HIV-1 immunity, and suppression of pDCs might mitigate immune responses against HIV-1. HIV-1 gp120 high-mannose has been attributed immunosuppressive roles in human myeloid DCs, but no receptors for high-mannose have so far...... or viable HIV-1 particles with various degrees of mannosylation were cultured with pDCs. Activation of pDCs was determined by assaying secretion of IFN-alpha, viability, and upregulation of several pDC-activation markers: CD40, CD86, HLA-DR, CCR7, and PD-L1. The level of activation negatively correlated...

The cellwall proteins of fungi are modified by N- and O-linked mannosylation and phosphomannosylation, resulting in changes to the physical and immunological properties of the cell. Glycosylation of cellwall proteins involves the activities of families of endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi-located glycosyl transferases whose activities are difficult to infer through bioinformatics. The Candida albicans MNT1/KRE2 mannosyl transferase family is represented by five members. We showed previously that Mnt1 and Mnt2 are involved in O-linked mannosylation and are required for virulence. Here, the role of C. albicans MNT3, MNT4, and MNT5 was determined by generating single and multiple MnTDelta null mutants and by functional complementation experiments in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. CaMnt3, CaMnt4, and CaMnt5 did not participate in O-linked mannosylation, but CaMnt3 and CaMnt5 had redundant activities in phosphomannosylation and were responsible for attachment of approximately half of the phosphomannan attached to N-linked mannans. CaMnt4 and CaMnt5 participated in N-mannan branching. Deletion of CaMNT3, CaMNT4, and CaMNT5 affected the growth rate and virulence of C. albicans, affected the recognition of the yeast by human monocytes and cytokine stimulation, and led to increased cellwall chitin content and exposure of beta-glucan at the cellwall surface. Therefore, the MNT1/KRE2 gene family participates in three types of protein mannosylation in C. albicans, and these modifications play vital roles in fungal cellwall structure and cell surface recognition by the innate immune system.

Protein O-mannosylation is a post-translational modification essential for correct development of mammals. In humans, deficient O-mannosylation results in severe congenital muscular dystrophies often associated with impaired brain and eye development. Although various O-mannosylated proteins have been identified in the recent years, the distribution of O-mannosyl glycans in the mammalian brain and target proteins are still not well defined. In the present study, rabbit monoclonal antibodies directed against the O-mannosylated peptide YAT(α1-Man)AV were generated. Detailed characterization of clone RKU-1-3-5 revealed that this monoclonal antibody recognizes O-linked mannose also in different peptide and protein contexts. Using this tool, we observed that mono-O-mannosyl glycans occur ubiquitously throughout the murine brain but are especially enriched at inhibitory GABAergic neurons and at the perineural nets. Using a mass spectrometry-based approach, we further identified glycoproteins from the murine brain that bear single O-mannose residues. Among the candidates identified are members of the cadherin and plexin superfamilies and the perineural net protein neurocan. In addition, we identified neurexin 3, a cell adhesion protein involved in synaptic plasticity, and inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor 5, a protease inhibitor important in stabilizing the extracellular matrix, as new O-mannosylated glycoproteins. PMID:27812179

Full Text Available Protein O-mannosylation is a post-translational modification essential for correct development of mammals. In humans, deficient O-mannosylation results in severe congenital muscular dystrophies often associated with impaired brain and eye development. Although various O-mannosylated proteins have been identified in the recent years, the distribution of O-mannosyl glycans in the mammalian brain and target proteins are still not well defined. In the present study, rabbit monoclonal antibodies directed against the O-mannosylated peptide YAT(α1-ManAV were generated. Detailed characterization of clone RKU-1-3-5 revealed that this monoclonal antibody recognizes O-linked mannose also in different peptide and protein contexts. Using this tool, we observed that mono-O-mannosyl glycans occur ubiquitously throughout the murine brain but are especially enriched at inhibitory GABAergic neurons and at the perineural nets. Using a mass spectrometry-based approach, we further identified glycoproteins from the murine brain that bear single O-mannose residues. Among the candidates identified are members of the cadherin and plexin superfamilies and the perineural net protein neurocan. In addition, we identified neurexin 3, a cell adhesion protein involved in synaptic plasticity, and inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor 5, a protease inhibitor important in stabilizing the extracellular matrix, as new O-mannosylated glycoproteins.

Background and Aims: Kupffer cells are responsible for maintaining liver homeostasis and have a vital role in chronic hepatotoxicity and various liver diseases. Positron Imaging Tomography (PET) is a non-invasive imaging technique that allows quantification and visualization of biochemical processes

Plant cellwalls differ in their amount and composition among various cell types and even in different microdomains of the wall of a given cell. Plants must have evolved regulatory mechanisms controlling biosynthesis, targeted secretion, and assembly of wall components to achieve the heterogeneity in cellwalls. A number of factors, including hormones, the cytoskeleton, glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, phosphoinositides, and sugar nucleotide supply, have been implicated in the regulation of cellwall biosynthesis or deposition. In the past two years, there have been important discoveries in transcriptional regulation of secondary wall biosynthesis. Several transcription factors in the NAC and MYB families have been shown to be the key switches for activation of secondary wall biosynthesis. These studies suggest a transcriptional network comprised of a hierarchy of transcription factors is involved in regulating secondary wall biosynthesis. Further investigation and integration of the regulatory players participating in the making of cellwalls will certainly lead to our understanding of how wall amounts and composition are controlled in a given cell type. This may eventually allow custom design of plant cellwalls on the basis of our needs.

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) play a vital role in activation of anti-HIV-1 immunity, and suppression of pDCs might mitigate immune responses against HIV-1. HIV-1 gp120 high-mannose has been attributed immunosuppressive roles in human myeloid DCs, but no receptors for high-mannose have so far

This chapter describes a method allowing the purification of the cellwall for studying both polysaccharides and proteins. The plant primary cellwall is mainly composed of polysaccharides (90-95 % in mass) and of proteins (5-10 %). At the end of growth, specialized cells may synthesize a lignified secondary wall composed of polysaccharides (about 65 %) and lignin (about 35 %). Due to its composition, the cellwall is the cellular compartment having the highest density and this property is used for its purification. It plays critical roles during plant development and in response to environmental constraints. It is largely used in the food and textile industries as well as for the production of bioenergy. All these characteristics and uses explain why its study as a true cell compartment is of high interest. The proposed method of purification can be used for large amount of material but can also be downscaled to 500 mg of fresh material. Tools for checking the quality of the cellwall preparation, such as protein analysis and microscopy observation, are also provided.

Wood is best defined as a three-dimensional biopolymer composite composed of an interconnected network of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin with minor amounts of extractives, and inorganics. The major chemical component of a living tree is water, but on a dry weight basis, all wood cellwalls consist mainly of sugar-based polymers (carbohydrates, 65-75%) that are...

A solar cell is disclosed which comprises a first semiconductor material of one conductivity type with one face having the same conductivity type but more heavily doped to form a field region arranged to receive the radiant energy to be converted to electrical energy, and a layer of a second semiconductor material, preferably highly doped, of opposite conductivity type on the first semiconductor material adjacent the first semiconductor material at an interface remote from the heavily doped field region. Instead of the opposite conductivity layer, a metallic Schottky diode layer may be used, in which case no additional back contact is needed. A contact such as a gridded contact, previous to the radiant energy may be applied to the heavily doped field region of the more heavily doped, same conductivity material for its contact.

Sugar analysis of isolated cellwalls from three formae speciales of Fusarium oxysporum showed that they contained not only glucose and (N-acetyl)-glucosamine, but also mannose, galactose, and uronic acids, presumably originating from cellwall glycoproteins. Cellwall glycoproteins accounted for

The fungal cellwall confers cell morphology and protection against environmental insults. For fungal pathogens, the cellwall is a key immunological modulator and an ideal therapeutic target. Yeast cellwalls possess an inner matrix of interlinked β-glucan and chitin that is thought to provide tensile strength and rigidity. Yeast cells remodel their walls over time in response to environmental change, a process controlled by evolutionarily conserved stress (Hog1) and cell integrity (Mkc1, Cek1) signaling pathways. These mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways modulate cellwall gene expression, leading to the construction of a new, modified cellwall. We show that the cellwall is not rigid but elastic, displaying rapid structural realignments that impact survival following osmotic shock. Lactate-grown Candida albicans cells are more resistant to hyperosmotic shock than glucose-grown cells. We show that this elevated resistance is not dependent on Hog1 or Mkc1 signaling and that most cell death occurs within 10 min of osmotic shock. Sudden decreases in cell volume drive rapid increases in cellwall thickness. The elevated stress resistance of lactate-grown cells correlates with reduced cellwall elasticity, reflected in slower changes in cell volume following hyperosmotic shock. The cellwall elasticity of lactate-grown cells is increased by a triple mutation that inactivates the Crh family of cellwall cross-linking enzymes, leading to increased sensitivity to hyperosmotic shock. Overexpressing Crh family members in glucose-grown cells reduces cellwall elasticity, providing partial protection against hyperosmotic shock. These changes correlate with structural realignment of the cellwall and with the ability of cells to withstand osmotic shock. The C. albicans cellwall is the first line of defense against external insults, the site of immune recognition by the host, and an attractive target for antifungal therapy. Its tensile strength is conferred by

The primary wall surrounding most dicotyledonous plant cells contains a hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein (HRGP) component named extensin. A small group of glycopeptides solubilized from isolated cellwalls by proteolysis contained a repeated pentapeptide glycosylated by tri- and tetraarabinosides linked to hydroxyproline and, by galactose, linked to serine. Recently, two complementary approaches to this problem have provided results which greatly increase the understanding of wall extensin. In this paper the authors describe what is known about the structure of soluble extensin secreted into the walls of the carrot root cells

Gravity responses in plants often involve spatial and temporal changes in cell growth, which is regulated primarily by controlling the ability of the cellwall to extend. The wall is thought to be a cellulose-hemicellulose network embedded in a hydrated matrix of complex polysaccharides and a small amount of structural protein. The wall extends by a form of polymer creep, which is mediated by expansins, a novel group of wall-loosening proteins. Expansins were discovered during a molecular dissection of the "acid growth" behavior of cellwalls. Expansin alters the rheology of plant walls in profound ways, yet its molecular mechanism of action is still uncertain. It lacks detectable hydrolytic activity against the major components of the wall, but it is able to disrupt noncovalent adhesion between wall polysaccharides. The discovery of a second family of expansins (beta-expansins) sheds light on the biological role of a major group of pollen allergens and implies that expansins have evolved for diverse developmental functions. Finally, the contribution of other processes to wall extensibility is briefly summarized.

This conference will address recent progress in many aspects of cellwall biology. Molecular, genetic, and genomic approaches are yielding major advances in our understanding of the composition, synthesis, and architecture of plant cellwalls and their dynamics during growth, and are identifying the genes that encode the machinery needed to make their biogenesis possible. This meeting will bring together international scientists from academia, industry and government labs to share the latest breakthroughs and perspectives on polysaccharide biosynthesis, wood formation, wall modification, expansion and interaction with other organisms, and genomic & evolutionary analyses of wall-related genes, as well as to discuss recent ''nanotechnological'' advances that take wall analysis to the level of a single cell.

Genetic studies are ideal platforms for assessing the extent of genetic diversity, inferring the genetic architecture, and evaluating complex trait interrelations for cellwall compositional and bioconversion traits relevant to bioenergy applications. Through the characterization of a forage

Her2/neu is overexpressed in various human cancers of epithelial origin and is associated with increased metastatic potential and poor prognosis. Several attempts have been made using the extracellular domain of Her2/neu (ECD/Her2) as a prophylactic vaccine in mice with no success in tumor prevention. The extracellular domain of Her2/neu (ECD/Her2) was expressed in yeast P. pastoris, in a soluble highly mannosylated form. The immune response of the immunization with this recombinant ECD/Her2 was analyzed using immunoprecipitation and western blot analysis, proliferation and cytotoxicity assays as well as specific tumor growth assays. Mannosylated ECD/Her2 elicited a humoral response with HER2/neu specific antibodies in vaccinated mice, which were able to reduce the proliferation rate of cancer cells in vitro. Moreover, it elicited a cellular response with Her2/neu-specific CTL capable of lysing tumor cells, in vitro. When immunized Balb/c and HHD mice were challenged with Her2/neu-overexpressing cells, tumor growth was inhibited. Here we report on the efficacy of the extracellular domain of human Her2/neu produced in yeast P. pastoris, which confers mannosylation of the protein, to act as a potent anti-tumor vaccine against Her2/neu overexpressing tumors. Specific cellular and humoral responses were observed as well as efficacy

Plant cellwalls are complex structures whose composition and architecture are important to various cellular activities. Plant cell elongation requires a high level of rearrangement of the cellwall polymers to enable cell expansion. However, the cellwall polysaccharides dynamics during plant cell...... elongation is poorly understood. This PhD project aims to elucidate the cellwall compositional and structural change during cell elongation by using Comprehensive Microarray Polymer Profiling (CoMPP), microscopic techniques and molecular modifications of cellwall polysaccharide. Developing cotton fibre......, pea and Arabidopsis thaliana were selected as research models to investigate different types of cell elongation, developmental elongation and tropism elongation. A set of comprehensive analysis covering 4 cotton species and 11 time points suggests that non-cellulosic polysaccharides contribute...

Immersion-refractometric and light-scattering measurements were adapted to determinations of average refractive indices and physical compactness of isolated bacterial cellwalls. The structures were immersed in solutions containing various concentrations of polymer molecules that cannot penetrate into wall pores, and then an estimate was made of the polymer concentration or the refractive index of the polymer solution in which light scattering was reduced to zero. Because each wall preparation was heterogeneous, the refractive index of the medium for zero light scattering had to be estimated by extrapolation. Refractive indices for walls suspended in bovine serum albumin solutions ranged from 1.348 for walls of the rod form of Arthrobacter crystallopoietes to 1.382 for walls of the teichoic acid deficient, 52A5 strain of Staphylococcus aureus. These indices were used to calculate approximate values for solids content per milliliter, and the calculated values agreed closely with those estimated from a knowledge of dextran-impermeable volumes per gram, dry weight, of the walls. When large molecules such as dextrans or serum albumin were used for immersion refractometry, the refractive indices obtained were for entire walls, including both wall polymers and wall water. When smaller molecules that can penetrate wall pores to various extents were used with Micrococcus lysodeikticus walls, the average, apparent refractive index of the structures increased as the molecular size of probing molecules was decreased. It was possible to obtain an estimate of 1.45 to 1.46 for the refractive index of wall polymers, predominantly peptidoglycans in this case, by extrapolating the curve for refractive index versus molecular radius to a value of 0.2 nm, the approximate radius of a water molecule. This relatively low value for polymer refractive index was interpreted as evidence in favor of the amorphous, elastic model of peptidoglycan structure and against the crystalline, rigid

The cellwall of Bacillus subtilis is a rigid structure on the outside of the cell that forms the first barrier between the bacterium and the environment, and at the same time maintains cell shape and withstands the pressure generated by the cell’s turgor. In this chapter, the chemical composition

The yeast cellwall is a strong, but elastic, structure that is essential not only for the maintenance of cell shape and integrity, but also for progression through the cell cycle. During growth and morphogenesis, and in response to environmental challenges, the cellwall is remodeled in a highly regulated and polarized manner, a process that is principally under the control of the cellwall integrity (CWI) signaling pathway. This pathway transmits wall stress signals from the cell surface to the Rho1 GTPase, which mobilizes a physiologic response through a variety of effectors. Activation of CWI signaling regulates the production of various carbohydrate polymers of the cellwall, as well as their polarized delivery to the site of cellwall remodeling. This review article centers on CWI signaling in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through the cell cycle and in response to cellwall stress. The interface of this signaling pathway with other pathways that contribute to the maintenance of cellwall integrity is also discussed. PMID:22174182

Our DOE Biosciences-funded work focused on the fungal cellwall and morphogenesis. We are especially interested in how new cellwall material is targeted to appropriate areas for polar (asymmetric) growth. Polar growth is the only way that filamentous fungi explore the environment to find suitable substrates to degrade. Work funded by this grant has resulted in a total of twenty peer-reviewed publications. In work funded by this grant, we identified nine Aspergillus nidulans temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants that fail to send out a germ tube and show a swollen cell phenotype at restrictive temperature, the swo mutants. In other organisms, a swollen cell phenotype is often associated with misdirected growth or weakened cellwalls. Our work shows that several of the A. nidulans swo mutants have defects in the establishment and maintenance of polarity. Cloning of several swo genes by complementation also showed that secondary modification of proteins seems is important in polarity. We also investigated cellwall biosynthesis and branching based on leads in literature from other organisms and found that branching and nuclear division are tied and that the cellwall reorganizes during development. In our most recent work we have focused on gene expression during the shift from isotropic to polar growth. Surprisingly we found that genes previously thought to be involved only in spore formation are important in early vegetative growth as well.

Plant cellwalls are structurally complex and contain a large number of diverse carbohydrate polymers. These plant fibers are a highly valuable bio-resource and the focus of food, energy and health research. We are interested in studying the interplay of plant cellwall carbohydrates with proteins...... for characterizing protein-carbohydrate binding. The presentation will highlight chemical syntheses of plant cellwall oligosaccharides from the group and provide examples from studies of their interactions with proteins....... such as enzymes, cell surface lectins, and antibodies. However, detailed molecular level investigations of such interactions are hampered by the heterogeneity and diversity of the polymers of interest. To circumvent this, we target well-defined oligosaccharides with representative structures that can be used...

This review summarizes recent studies on the diurnal periodicity in wood cellwall formation, with a major focus on those that we have conducted. Differences in the innermost surface of developing secondary walls of differentiating conifer tracheids can be seen from day to night Cellulose microfibrils are clearly evident during the day, and amorphous material containing abundant hemicelluloses is prevalent at night. These findings suggest a diurnal periodicity in the supply of cellwall compo...

Plant cellwalls are intricate structures with remarkable properties, widely used in almost every aspect of our life. Cellwalls consist largely of complex polysaccharides and there is often a need for chemical and biochemical processing before industrial use. There is an increasing demand...... for sustainable processes that replace chemical treatments with white biotechnology. Plants can contribute significantly to this sustainable process by producing plant or microbialenzymes in planta that are necessary for plant cellwall modification or total degradation. This will give rise to superior food...... fibres, hydrocolloids, paper,textile, animal feeds or biofuels. Classical microbial-based fermentation systems could in the future face serious competition from plant-based expression systems for enzyme production. Plant expressed enzymes can either be targeted to specific cellular compartments...

Full Text Available The cellwall is one of the characteristic components of plant cells. The cellwall composition differs among cell types and is modified in response to various environmental conditions. To properly generate and modify the cellwall, many proteins are transported to the plasma membrane or extracellular space through membrane trafficking, which is one of the key protein transport mechanisms in eukaryotic cells. Given the diverse composition and functions of the cellwall in plants, the transport of the cellwall components and proteins that are involved in cellwall-related events could be specialized for each cell type, i.e., the machinery for cellwall biogenesis, modification, and maintenance could be transported via different trafficking pathways. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in the current understanding of the roles and mechanisms of membrane trafficking in plant cells and focus on the biogenesis and regulation of the cellwall.

Full Text Available Plant cellwalls provide stability and protection to plant cells. During growth and development the composition of cellwalls changes, but provides enough strength to withstand the turgor of the cells. Hence, cellwalls are highly flexible and diverse in nature. These characteristics are important during root growth, as plant roots consist of radial patterns of cells that have diverse functions and that are at different developmental stages along the growth axis. Young stem cell daughters undergo a series of rapid cell divisions, during which new cellwalls are formed that are highly dynamic, and that support rapid anisotropic cell expansion. Once the cells have differentiated, the walls of specific cell types need to comply with and support different cell functions. For example, a newly formed root hair needs to be able to break through the surrounding soil, while endodermal cells modify their walls at distinct positions to form Casparian strips between them. Hence, the cellwalls are modified and rebuilt while cells transit through different developmental stages. In addition, the cellwalls of roots readjust to their environment to support growth and to maximize nutrient uptake. Many of these modifications are likely driven by different developmental and stress signalling pathways. However, our understanding of how such pathways affect cellwall modifications and what enzymes are involved remain largely unknown. In this review we aim to compile data linking cellwall content and re-modelling to developmental stages of root cells, and dissect how root cellwalls respond to certain environmental changes.

We discuss a dynamical mathematical model to explain cellwall architecture in plant cells. The highly regular textures observed in cellwalls reflect the spatial organisation of the cellulose microfibrils (CMFs), the most important structural component of cellwalls. Based on a geometrical theory

The role of apoptosis and proliferation in maintenance of cochlear lateral wallcells was examined. The methods employed for detection of apoptosis were the Hoechst fluorescence stain and TUNEL (TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick-end-labeling) assay, and proliferations were 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation and presence of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen. The incidence of apoptosis in the strial marginal cell was 50% greater (32.9+/-3.7%) than strial intermediate and basal cells but similar to spiral ligament cells. Although division of marginal strial cells was rarely detected, a significant number of proliferating cells in the remaining stria vascularis and spiral ligament were observed. These data implied that replacement of marginal cells arose elsewhere and could be followed by a BrdU-deoxythymidine pulse-chase study. At 2 h post injection, nuclear BrdU in marginal cells was not detected; however, by 24 h post injection, 20-25% of marginal cell nuclei were BrdU-positive. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that marginal cells were replaced by underlying cells. Cell migration appears to be an important mechanism for preserving the function and structure of the stria vascularis.

Inefficient conversion of biomass to biofuels is one of the main barriers for biofuel production from such materials. Approximately half of polysaccharides in biomass remain unused by typical biochemical conversion methods. Conversion efficiency is influenced by the composition and structure of cellwalls of biomass. Grasses such as wheat, maize, and rice, as well as dedicated perennial bioenergy crops, like switchgrass, make up ~55% of biomass that can be produced in the United States. Grass cellwalls have a different composition and patterning compared with dicotyledonous plants, including the well-studied model plant, Arabidopsis. This project identified genetic determinants of cellwall composition in grasses using both naturally occurring genetic variation of switchgrass and gene network reconstruction and functional assays in rice. In addition, the project linked functional data in rice and other species to switchgrass improvement efforts through curation of the most abundant class of regulators in the switchgrass genome. Characterizing natural diversity of switchgrass for variation in cellwall composition and properties, also known as quality, provides an unbiased avenue for identifying biologically viable diversity in switchgrass cellwalls. To characterizing natural diversity, this project generated cellwall composition and enzymatic deconstruction data for ~450 genotypes of the Switchgrass Southern Association Collection (SSAC), a diverse collection composed of 36 switchgrass accessions from the southern U.S. distribution of switchgrass. Comparing these data with other measures of cellwall quality for the same samples demonstrated the complementary nature of the diverse characterization platforms now being used for biomass characterization. Association of the composition data with ~3.2K single nucleotide variant markers identified six significant single nucleotide variant markers co-associated with digestibility and another compositional trait. These

Understanding structure-property relationships for wood cellwalls has been hindered by the complex polymeric structures comprising these cellwalls and the difficulty in assessing meaningful mechanical property measurements of individual cellwalls. To help overcome these hindrances, we have developed two experimental methods: 1) two-dimensional solution state nuclear...

Ruminococcus albus was incubated with isolated alfalfa cellwall material for 72 h in batch culture. Cellulose in the cellwalls was digested to a somewhat greater extent (88%) than were the fermentable sugars of the hemicellulose fraction (62- 76%). The digestibility of the total insoluble alfalfa cellwall, including lignin but ...

When water uptake by growing cells is prevented, the turgor pressure and the tensile stress in the cellwall are reduced by continued wall loosening. This process, termed in vivo stress relaxation, provides a new way to study the dynamics of wall loosening and to measure the wall yield threshold and the physiological wall extensibility. Stress relaxation experiments indicate that wall stress supplies the mechanical driving force for wall yielding. Cell expansion also requires water absorption. The driving force for water uptake during growth is created by wall relaxation, which lowers the water potential of the expanding cells. New techniques for measuring this driving force show that it is smaller than believed previously; in elongating stems it is only 0.3 to 0.5 bar. This means that the hydraulic resistance of the water transport pathway is small and that rate of cell expansion is controlled primarily by wall loosening and yielding.

The cellwall is composed of a polysaccharide-based three-dimensional network. Considered for a long time as an inert exoskeleton, the cellwall is now seen as a dynamic structure that is continuously changing as a result of the modification of culture conditions and environmental stresses. Although the cellwall composition varies among fungal species, chemogenomic comparative analysis have led to a better understanding of the genes and mechanisms involved in the construction of the common central core composed of branched beta1,3 glucan-chitin. Because of its essential biological role, unique biochemistry and structural organization and the absence in mammalian cells of most of its constitutive components, the cellwall is an attractive target for the development of new antifungal agents. Genomic as well as drug studies have shown that the death of the fungus can result from inhibition of cellwall polysaccharide synthases. To date, only beta1,3 glucan synthase inhibitors have been launched clinically and many more targets remain to be explored.

Cellwalls from the endosperm of four monocotyledons (maize, wheat, rye, and rice) and four dicotyledons (soya bean, lupin, faba bean, and pea) seeds were studied to relate cellwall composition and structure with fermentation characteristics. Cellwall material was isolated from the endosperm of

Plant cells are surrounded by cellwalls, which are dynamic structures displaying a strictly regulated balance between rigidity and flexibility. Walls are fairly rigid to provide support and protection, but also extensible, to allow cell growth, which is triggered by a high intracellular turgor pressure. Wall properties regulate the differential growth of the cell, resulting in a diversity of cell sizes and shapes. The plant hormone auxin is well known to stimulate cell elongation via increasing wall extensibility. Auxin participates in the regulation of cellwall properties by inducing wall loosening. Here, we review what is known on cellwall property regulation by auxin. We focus particularly on the auxin role during cell expansion linked directly to cellwall modifications. We also analyze downstream targets of transcriptional auxin signaling, which are related to the cellwall and could be linked to acid growth and the action of wall-loosening proteins. All together, this update elucidates the connection between hormonal signaling and cellwall synthesis and deposition.

Transfer cells are characterized by wall labyrinths with either a flange or reticulate architecture. A literature survey established that reticulate wall ingrowth papillae ubiquitously arise from a modified component of their wall labyrinth, termed the uniform wall layer; a structure absent from flange transfer cells. This finding sparked an investigation of the deposition characteristics and role of the uniform wall layer using a Vicia faba cotyledon culture system. On transfer of cotyledons to culture, their adaxial epidermal cells spontaneously trans-differentiate to a reticulate architecture comparable to their abaxial epidermal transfer cell counterparts formed in planta. Uniform wall layer construction commenced once adaxial epidermal cell expansion had ceased to overlay the original outer periclinal wall on its inner surface. In contrast to the dense ring-like lattice of cellulose microfibrils in the original primary wall, the uniform wall layer was characterized by a sparsely dispersed array of linear cellulose microfibrils. A re-modeled cortical microtubule array exerted no influence on uniform wall layer formation or on its cellulose microfibril organization. Surprisingly, formation of the uniform wall layer was not dependent upon depositing a cellulose scaffold. In contrast, uniform wall cellulose microfibrils were essential precursors for constructing wall ingrowth papillae. On converging to form wall ingrowth papillae, the cellulose microfibril diameters increased 3-fold. This event correlated with up-regulated differential, and transfer-cell specific, expression of VfCesA3B while transcript levels of other cellulose biosynthetic-related genes linked with primary wall construction were substantially down-regulated. PMID:29259611

Full Text Available The O-mannosyltransferase Pmt4 has emerged as crucial for fungal virulence in the animal pathogens Candida albicans or Cryptococcus neoformans as well as in the phytopathogenic fungus Ustilago maydis. Pmt4 O-mannosylates specific target proteins at the Endoplasmic Reticulum. Therefore a deficient O-mannosylation of these target proteins must be responsible for the loss of pathogenicity in pmt4 mutants. Taking advantage of the characteristics described for Pmt4 substrates in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we performed a proteome-wide bioinformatic approach to identify putative Pmt4 targets in the corn smut fungus U. maydis and validated Pmt4-mediated glycosylation of candidate proteins by electrophoretic mobility shift assays. We found that the signalling mucin Msb2, which regulates appressorium differentiation upstream of the pathogenicity-related MAP kinase cascade, is O-mannosylated by Pmt4. The epistatic relationship of pmt4 and msb2 showed that both are likely to act in the same pathway. Furthermore, constitutive activation of the MAP kinase cascade restored appressorium development in pmt4 mutants, suggesting that during the initial phase of infection the failure to O-mannosylate Msb2 is responsible for the virulence defect of pmt4 mutants. On the other hand we demonstrate that during later stages of pathogenic development Pmt4 affects virulence independently of Msb2, probably by modifying secreted effector proteins. Pit1, a protein required for fungal spreading inside the infected leaf, was also identified as a Pmt4 target. Thus, O-mannosylation of different target proteins affects various stages of pathogenic development in U. maydis.

Polysaccharides and proteins are secreted to the inner surface of the growing cellwall, where they assemble into a network that is mechanically strong, yet remains extensible until the cells cease growth. This review focuses on the agents that directly or indirectly enhance the extensibility properties of growing walls. The properties of expansins, endoglucanases, and xyloglucan transglycosylases are reviewed and their postulated roles in modulating wall extensibility are evaluated. A summary model for wall extension is presented, in which expansin is a primary agent of wall extension, whereas endoglucanases, xyloglucan endotransglycosylase, and other enzymes that alter wall structure act secondarily to modulate expansin action.

Presented herein are methods of using cellwall degrading enzymes for recovery of internal lipid bodies from biomass sources such as algae. Also provided are algal cells that express at least one exogenous gene encoding a cellwall degrading enzyme and methods for recovering lipids from the cells.

The advent of user-friendly instruments for measuring force/deflection curves of plant surfaces at high spatial resolution has resulted in a recent outpouring of reports of the ‘Young's modulus’ of plant cellwalls. The stimulus for these mechanical measurements comes from biomechanical models of morphogenesis of meristems and other tissues, as well as single cells, in which cellwall stress feeds back to regulate microtubule organization, auxin transport, cellulose deposition, and future growth directionality. In this article I review the differences between elastic modulus and wall extensibility in the context of cell growth. Some of the inherent complexities, assumptions, and potential pitfalls in the interpretation of indentation force/deflection curves are discussed. Reported values of elastic moduli from surface indentation measurements appear to be 10- to >1000-fold smaller than realistic tensile elastic moduli in the plane of plant cellwalls. Potential reasons for this disparity are discussed, but further work is needed to make sense of the huge range in reported values. The significance of wall stress relaxation for growth is reviewed and connected to recent advances and remaining enigmas in our concepts of how cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectins are assembled to make an extensible cellwall. A comparison of the loosening action of α-expansin and Cel12A endoglucanase is used to illustrate two different ways in which cellwalls may be made more extensible and the divergent effects on wall mechanics.

Plant cell enlargement is regulated by wall relaxation and yielding, which is thought to be catalyzed by elusive "wall-loosening" enzymes. By employing a reconstitution approach, we found that a crude protein extract from the cellwalls of growing cucumber seedlings possessed the ability to induce the extension of isolated cellwalls. This activity was restricted to the growing region of the stem and could induce the extension of isolated cellwalls from various dicot stems and the leaves of amaryllidaceous monocots, but was less effective on grass coleoptile walls. Endogenous and reconstituted wall extension activities showed similar sensitivities to pH, metal ions, thiol reducing agents, proteases, and boiling in methanol or water. Sequential HPLC fractionation of the active wall extract revealed two proteins with molecular masses of 29 and 30 kD associated with the activity. Each protein, by itself, could induce wall extension without detectable hydrolytic breakdown of the wall. These proteins appear to mediate "acid growth" responses of isolated walls and may catalyze plant cellwall extension by a novel biochemical mechanism.

The ability to characterize bacterial cell-wall composition and structure is crucial to understanding the function of the bacterial cellwall, determining drug modes of action and developing new-generation therapeutics. Solid-state NMR has emerged as a powerful tool to quantify chemical composition and to map cell-wall architecture in bacteria and plants, even in the context of unperturbed intact whole cells. In this review, we discuss solid-state NMR approaches to define peptidoglycan composition and to characterize the modes of action of old and new antibiotics, focusing on examples in Staphylococcus aureus. We provide perspectives regarding the selected NMR strategies as we describe the exciting and still-developing cell-wall and whole-cell NMR toolkit. We also discuss specific discoveries regarding the modes of action of vancomycin analogues, including oritavancin, and briefly address the reconsideration of the killing action of β-lactam antibiotics. In such chemical genetics approaches, there is still much to be learned from perturbations enacted by cell-wall assembly inhibitors, and solid-state NMR approaches are poised to address questions of cell-wall composition and assembly in S. aureus and other organisms. PMID:26370936

Polysaccharide compositions of cellwalls were assessed by quantitative analyses of the component sugars. Cellwalls were hydrolyzed in 2 n trifluoroacetic acid and the liberated sugars reduced to their respective alditols. The alditols were acetylated and the resulting alditol acetates separated by gas chromatography. Quantitative assay of the alditol acetates was accomplished by electronically integrating the detector output of the gas chromatograph. Myo-inositol, introduced into the sample prior to hydrolysis, served as an internal standard. The cellwall polysaccharide compositions of plant varieties within a given species are essentially identical. However, differences in the sugar composition were observed in cellwalls prepared from different species of the same as well as of different genera. The fact that the wall compositions of different varieties of the same species are the same indicates that the biosynthesis of cellwall polysaccharides is genetically regulated. The cellwalls of various morphological parts (roots, hypocotyls, first internodes and primary leaves) of bean plants were each found to have a characteristic sugar composition. It was found that the cellwall sugar composition of suspension-cultured sycamore cells could be altered by growing the cells on different carbon sources. This demonstrates that the biosynthesis of cellwall polysaccharides can be manipulated without fatal consequences. PMID:16656594

Relax, that deduces relaxation spectra from appropriate rheological measurements is presented and made accessible through a Web interface. BayesRelax models the cellwall as a continuum of relaxing elements, and the ability of the method to resolve small differences in cellwall mechanical properties is demonstrated......Transformants and mutants with altered cellwall composition are expected to display a biomechanical phenotype due to the structural role of the cellwall. It is often quite difficult, however, to distinguish the mechanical behavior of a mutant's or transformant's cellwalls from that of the wild...... type. This may be due to the plant’s ability to compensate for the wall modification or because the biophysical method that is often employed, determination of simple elastic modulus and breakstrength, lacks the resolving power necessary for detecting subtle mechanical phenotypes. Here, we apply...

Full Text Available Plant cellwalls are composed of interlinked polymer networks consisting of cellulose, hemicelluloses, pectins, proteins, and lignin. The ordered deposition of these components is a dynamic process that critically affects the development and differentiation of plant cells. However, our understanding of cellwall synthesis and remodeling, as well as the diverse cellwall architectures that result from these processes, has been limited by a lack of suitable chemical probes that are compatible with live-cell imaging. In this review, we summarize the currently available molecular toolbox of probes for cellwall polysaccharide imaging in plants, with particular emphasis on recent advances in small molecule-based fluorescent probes. We also discuss the potential for further development of small molecule probes for the analysis of cellwall architecture and dynamics.

The development of a range of sub-proteomic approaches to the plant cellwall has identified many of the cellwall proteins. However, it remains difficult to elucidate the precise biological role of each protein and the cellwall dynamics driven by their actions. The plant protoplast provides an excellent means not only for characterizing cellwall proteins, but also for visualizing the dynamics of cellwall regeneration, during which cellwall proteins are secreted. It therefore offers a uni...

The ability to trap, manipulate and release single cells on a surface is important both for fundamental studies of cellular processes and for the development of novel lab-on-chip miniaturized tools for biological and medical applications. In this paper we demonstrate how magnetic domain walls...... walls over 16 hours. Moreover, we demonstrate the controlled transport and release of individual yeast cells via displacement and annihilation of individual domain walls in micro- and nano-sized magnetic structures. These results pave the way to the implementation of magnetic devices based on domain...... walls technology in lab-on-chip systems devoted to accurate individual cell trapping and manipulation....

Growing plant cells are shaped by an extensible wall that is a complex amalgam of cellulose microfibrils bonded noncovalently to a matrix of hemicelluloses, pectins, and structural proteins. Cellulose is synthesized by complexes in the plasma membrane and is extruded as a self-assembling microfibril, whereas the matrix polymers are secreted by the Golgi apparatus and become integrated into the wall network by poorly understood mechanisms. The growing wall is under high tensile stress from cell turgor and is able to enlarge by a combination of stress relaxation and polymer creep. A pH-dependent mechanism of wall loosening, known as acid growth, is characteristic of growing walls and is mediated by a group of unusual wall proteins called expansins. Expansins appear to disrupt the noncovalent bonding of matrix hemicelluloses to the microfibril, thereby allowing the wall to yield to the mechanical forces generated by cell turgor. Other wall enzymes, such as (1-->4) beta-glucanases and pectinases, may make the wall more responsive to expansin-mediated wall creep whereas pectin methylesterases and peroxidases may alter the wall so as to make it resistant to expansin-mediated creep.

Changes in the polysaccharide composition of Phaseolus vulgaris, P. aureus, and Zea mays cellwalls were studied during the first 28 days of seedling development using a gas chromatographic method for the analysis of neutral sugars. Acid hydrolysis of cellwall material from young tissues liberates rhamnose, fucose, arabinose, xylose, mannose, galactose, and glucose which collectively can account for as much as 70% of the dry weight of the wall. Mature walls in fully expanded tissues of these same plants contain less of these constituents (10%-20% of dry wt). Gross differences are observed between developmental patterns of the cellwall in the various parts of a seedling, such as root, stem, and leaf. The general patterns of wall polysaccharide composition change, however, are similar for analogous organs among the varieties of a species. Small but significant differences in the rates of change in sugar composition were detected between varieties of the same species which exhibited different growth patterns. The cellwalls of species which are further removed phylogenetically exhibit even more dissimilar developmental patterns. The results demonstrate the dynamic nature of the cellwall during growth as well as the quantitative and qualitative exactness with which the biosynthesis of plant cellwalls is regulated. PMID:16656862

Most of the solar energy captured by land plants is converted into the polysaccharides (cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin) that are the predominant components of the cellwall. These walls, which account for the bulk of plant biomass, have numerous roles in the growth and development of plants. Moreover, these walls have a major impact on human life as they are a renewable source of biomass, a source of diverse commercially useful polymers, a major component of wood, and a source of nutrition for humans and livestock. Thus, understanding the molecular mechanisms that lead to wall assembly and how cellwalls and their component polysaccharides contribute to plant growth and development is essential to improve and extend the productivity and value of plant materials. The proposed research will develop and apply advanced analytical and immunological techniques to study specific changes in the structures and interactions of the hemicellulosic and pectic polysaccharides that occur during differentiation and in response to genetic modification and chemical treatments that affect wall biosynthesis. These new techniques will make it possible to accurately characterize minute amounts of cellwall polysaccharides so that subtle changes in structure that occur in individual cell types can be identified and correlated to the physiological or developmental state of the plant. Successful implementation of this research will reveal fundamental relationships between polysaccharide structure, cellwall architecture, and cellwall functions.

Natural fibres have a wide range of technological applications, such as in paper and textile industries. The basic properties and the quality of plant fibres are determined by the composition of the plant cellwall. Characteristic for fibres are thick secondary cellwalls, which consist of cellulose

During the last decades an increasing interest in microbial cellwall agents has been established, since exposure to these agents has been linked to a wide range of adverse and beneficial health effects. The term microbial cellwall agents refers to a group of molecules of different composition that

Adhesive bonding of wood using phenol-formaldehyde remains the industrial standard in wood product bond durability. Not only does this adhesive infiltrate the cellwall, it also is believed to form primary bonds with wood cellwall polymers, particularly guaiacyl lignin. However, the mechanism by which phenol-formaldehyde adhesive intergrally interacts and bonds to...

One of the characteristics of the plant kingdom is the presence of a structural cellwall. Cellulose is a major component in both the primary and secondary cellwalls of plants. In higher plants cellulose is synthesized by so called rosette protein complexes with cellulose synthases (CESAs) as

Full Text Available Plant tissues that require structural rigidity synthesize a thick, strong secondary cellwall of lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses in a complicated bridged structure. Master regulators of secondary wall synthesis were identified in dicots, and orthologs of these regulators have been identified in monocots, but regulation of secondary cellwall formation in monocots has not been extensively studied. Here we demonstrate that the rice transcription factors SECONDARY WALL NAC DOMAIN PROTEINs (SWNs can regulate secondary wall formation in rice (Oryza sativa and are potentially useful for engineering the monocot cellwall. The OsSWN1 promoter is highly active in sclerenchymatous cells of the leaf blade and less active in xylem cells. By contrast, the OsSWN2 promoter is highly active in xylem cells and less active in sclerenchymatous cells. OsSWN2 splicing variants encode two proteins; the shorter protein (OsSWN2S has very low transcriptional activation ability, but the longer protein (OsSWN2L and OsSWN1 have strong transcriptional activation ability. In rice, expression of an OsSWN2S chimeric repressor, driven by the OsSWN2 promoter, resulted in stunted growth and para-wilting (leaf rolling and browning under normal water conditions due to impaired vascular vessels. The same OsSWN2S chimeric repressor, driven by the OsSWN1 promoter, caused a reduction of cellwall thickening in sclerenchymatous cells, a drooping leaf phenotype, reduced lignin and xylose contents and increased digestibility as forage. These data suggest that OsSWNs regulate secondary wall formation in rice and manipulation of OsSWNs may enable improvements in monocotyledonous crops for forage or biofuel applications.

Secondary cellwalls provide plants with rigidity and strength to support their body weight and ensure water and nutrient transport.They also provide textiles,timber,and potentially second-generation biofuels for human use.Genes responsible for synthesis of the different cellwall components,namely cellulose,hemicelluloses,and lignin,are coordinately expressed and under transcriptional regulation.In the past several years,cellwall-related NAC and MYB transcription factors have been intensively investigated in different species and shown to be master switches of secondary cellwall biosynthesis.Positive and negative regulators,which function upstream of NAC master switches,have also been identified in different plant tissues.Further elucidation of the regulatory mechanisms of cellwall synthesis will facilitate the engineering of plant feedstocks suitable for biofuel production.

Full Text Available Unlike animals, plants, being sessile, cannot escape from exposure to severe abiotic stresses such as extreme temperature and water deficit. The dynamic structure of plant cellwall enables them to undergo compensatory changes, as well as maintain physical strength, with changing environments. Plant hormones known as brassinosteroids (BRs play a key role in determining cellwall expansion during stress responses. Cellwall deposition differs between grasses (Poaceae and dicots. Grass species include many important food, fiber, and biofuel crops. In this article, we focus on recent advances in BR-regulated cellwall biosynthesis and remodeling in response to stresses, comparing our understanding of the mechanisms in grass species with those in the more studied dicots. A more comprehensive understanding of BR-mediated changes in cellwall integrity in grass species will benefit the development of genetic tools to improve crop productivity, fiber quality and plant biomass recalcitrance.

Calcium crosslinks are load-bearing bonds in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) hypocotyl cellwalls, but they are not the same load-bearing bonds that are broken during acid-mediated cell elongation. This conclusion is reached by studying the relationship between wall calcium, pH and the facilitated creep of frozen-thawed soybean hypocotyl sections. Supporting data include the following observations: 1) 2-[(2-bis-[carboxymethyl]amino-5-methylphenoxy)methyl]-6-methoxy-8-bis[car boxymethyl]aminoquinoline (Quin 2) and ethylene glycol-bis(2-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) caused only limited facilitated creep as compared with acid, despite removal of comparable or larger amounts of wall calcium; 2) the pH-response curves for calcium removal and acid-facilitated creep were different; 3) reversible acid-extension occurred even after removal of almost all wall calcium with Quin 2; and 4) growth of abraded sections did not involve a proportional loss of wall calcium. Removal of wall calcium, however, increased the capacity of the walls to undergo acid-facilitated creep. These data indicate that breakage of calcium crosslinks is not a major mechanism of cell-wall loosening in soybean hypocotyl tissues.

Secondary wall is an abundant component of plant biomass and has a potential to be a renewable resource of bioenergy and biomaterials. It is important to unravel the molecular mechanism underlying secondary wall formation and how it contributes to plant biomass production. In this review, we summarized the potential ...

Previous data have suggested that the chromosome of Bacillus subtilis was found to the cell surface at polar regions. A significant corollary of DNA attachment to cell poles is the role of the cellwall in chromosome segregation. This project was mainly concerned with visualizing the DNA-cellwall association through autoradiography. The origin and terminus of replication were labelled with ( 3 H)-thymidine using a temperature-sensitive DNA initiation mutant. It was found that most of the radioactivity was associated with cell poles. Ultrastructural analyses of cellwalls stained with dilute cationized ferritin showed that the polar area contained a site of dense electronegativity. It is not immediately apparent why cellwall poles would contain an area with a high concentration of negative charge. This finding may be related to the cell pole functioning as the site of chromosome attachment. An additional observation encountered in this study was that cellwall exhibited asymmetry with regard to negative charge, the outside surface being more electronegative than the inside. A significant consequence of this finding is that both teichoic acid and muramyl peptides are situated perpendicularly to the cell surface. This favored arrangement may facilitate cell separation during the division process due to opposition of like charges at septa. The results of this work provide further convincing evidence that the cellwall of B. subtilis is differentiated

has previously been identified in garlic bulbs in which the LM26 epitope is widespread throughout most cellwalls including those of phloem cells. Garlic bulb cellwall material has been used to confirm the association of the LM26 epitope with cellwall pectic rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG...

The wall gives a Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell its osmotic integrity; defines cell shape during budding growth, mating, sporulation, and pseudohypha formation; and presents adhesive glycoproteins to other yeast cells. The wall consists of β1,3- and β1,6-glucans, a small amount of chitin, and many different proteins that may bear N- and O-linked glycans and a glycolipid anchor. These components become cross-linked in various ways to form higher-order complexes. Wall composition and degree of cross-linking vary during growth and development and change in response to cellwall stress. This article reviews wall biogenesis in vegetative cells, covering the structure of wall components and how they are cross-linked; the biosynthesis of N- and O-linked glycans, glycosylphosphatidylinositol membrane anchors, β1,3- and β1,6-linked glucans, and chitin; the reactions that cross-link wall components; and the possible functions of enzymatic and nonenzymatic cellwall proteins. PMID:23135325

The effects of the cellulose inhibitor dichlobenil on the cellwall composition and structure during the habituation/dehabituation process of suspension-cultured bean cells were assessed. A range of techniques were used including cellwall fractionation, sugar analysis, immunofluorescence...... and fluorochrome labelling of resin-embedded sections, and immunodot assays (IDAs) of cellwall fractions. The cellwalls from bean cell suspensions with initial levels of habituation to dichlobenil had decreased levels of cellulose, but this effect lessened with increasing numbers of subcultures. All cellwalls...

Cellwalls are deeply involved in the molecular talk between partners during plant and microbe interactions, and their role in mycorrhizae, i.e., the widespread symbiotic associations established between plant roots and soil fungi, has been investigated extensively. All mycorrhizal interactions achieve full symbiotic functionality through the development of an extensive contact surface between the plant and fungal cells, where signals and nutrients are exchanged. The exchange of molecules between the fungal and the plant cytoplasm takes place both through their plasma membranes and their cellwalls; a functional compartment, known as the symbiotic interface, is thus defined. Among all the symbiotic interfaces, the complex intracellular interface of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis has received a great deal of attention since its first description. Here, in fact, the host plasma membrane invaginates and proliferates around all the developing intracellular fungal structures, and cellwall material is laid down between this membrane and the fungal cell surface. By contrast, in ectomycorrhizae (ECM), where the fungus grows outside and between the root cells, plant and fungal cellwalls are always in direct contact and form the interface between the two partners. The organization and composition of cellwalls within the interface compartment is a topic that has attracted widespread attention, both in ecto- and endomycorrhizae. The aim of this review is to provide a general overview of the current knowledge on this topic by integrating morphological observations, which have illustrated cellwall features during mycorrhizal interactions, with the current data produced by genomic and transcriptomic approaches.

The development of a range of sub-proteomic approaches to the plant cellwall has identified many of the cellwall proteins. However, it remains difficult to elucidate the precise biological role of each protein and the cellwall dynamics driven by their actions. The plant protoplast provides an excellent means not only for characterizing cellwall proteins, but also for visualizing the dynamics of cellwall regeneration, during which cellwall proteins are secreted. It therefore offers a unique opportunity to investigate the de novo construction process of the cellwall. This review deals with sub-proteomic approaches to the plant cellwall through the use of protoplasts, a methodology that will provide the basis for further exploration of cellwall proteins and cellwall dynamics. PMID:28248244

The yeast cellwall plays an important role in maintaining cell morphology, cell integrity and response to environmental stresses. Here, we report that salt stress causes cellwall damage in yeast cells lacking mitochondrial DNA (ρ 0 ). Upon salt treatment, the cellwall is thickened, broken and becomes more sensitive to the cellwall-perturbing agent sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Also, SCW11 mRNA levels are elevated in ρ 0 cells. Deletion of SCW11 significantly decreases the sensitivity of ρ 0 cells to SDS after salt treatment, while overexpression of SCW11 results in higher sensitivity. In addition, salt stress in ρ 0 cells induces high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which further damages the cellwall, causing cells to become more sensitive towards the cellwall-perturbing agent.

Full Text Available We utilized two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting (2D-immunoblotting with anti-Sporothrix schenckii antibodies to identify antigenic proteins in cellwall preparations obtained from the mycelial and yeast-like morphologies of the fungus. Results showed that a 70-kDa glycoprotein (Gp70 was the major antigen detected in the cellwall of both morphologies and that a 60-kDa glycoprotein was present only in yeast-like cells. In addition to the Gp70, the wall from filament cells showed four proteins with molecular weights of 48, 55, 66 and 67 kDa, some of which exhibited several isoforms. To our knowledge, this is the first 2D-immunoblotting analysis of the S. schenckii cellwall.

This review focuses on the responses of the plant cellwall to several abiotic stresses including drought, flooding, heat, cold, salt, heavy metals, light, and air pollutants. The effects of stress on cellwall metabolism are discussed at the physiological (morphogenic), transcriptomic, proteomic and biochemical levels. The analysis of a large set of data shows that the plant response is highly complex. The overall effects of most abiotic stress are often dependent on the plant species, the genotype, the age of the plant, the timing of the stress application, and the intensity of this stress. This shows the difficulty of identifying a common pattern of stress response in cellwall architecture that could enable adaptation and/or resistance to abiotic stress. However, in most cases, two main mechanisms can be highlighted: (i) an increased level in xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase (XTH) and expansin proteins, associated with an increase in the degree of rhamnogalacturonan I branching that maintains cellwall plasticity and (ii) an increased cellwall thickening by reinforcement of the secondary wall with hemicellulose and lignin deposition. Taken together, these results show the need to undertake large-scale analyses, using multidisciplinary approaches, to unravel the consequences of stress on the cellwall. This will help identify the key components that could be targeted to improve biomass production under stress conditions. PMID:27135320

Biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuel ethanol is one of a few challenging, yet opportune technologies that can reduce the consumption of petroleum-derived transportation fuels, while providing parallel reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Biomass recalcitrance, or resistance to deconstruction, is a major technical challenge that limits effective conversion of biomass to fermentable sugars, often requiring a costly thermochemical pretreatment step to improve biomass deconstruction. Biomass recalcitrance is imparted largely by the secondary cellwall, a complex polymeric matrix of cellwall polysaccharides and aromatic heteropolymers, that provides structural stability to cells and enables plant upright growth. Polymers within the cellwall can vary both compositionally and structurally depending upon plant species and anatomical fraction, and have varied responses to thermochemical pretreatments. Cellwall properties impacting recalcitrance are still not well understood, and as a result, the goal of this dissertation is to investigate structural features of the cellwall contributing to recalcitrance (1) in diverse anatomical fractions of a single species, (2) in response to diverse pretreatments, and (3) resulting from genetic modification. In the first study, feedstock cellwall heterogeneity was investigated in anatomical (stem, leaf sheaths, and leaf blades) and internode fractions of switchgrass at varying tissue maturities. Lignin content was observed as the key contributor to recalcitrance in maturing stem tissues only, with non-cellulosic substituted glucuronoarabinoxylans and pectic polysaccharides contributing to cellwall recalcitrance in leaf sheath and leaf blades. Hydroxycinnamate (i.e., saponifiable p-coumarate and ferulate) content along with xylan and pectin extractability decreased with tissue maturity, suggesting lignification is only one component imparting maturity specific cellwall recalcitrance. In the second study

Tip-growing pollen tubes achieve rapid elongation while maintaining cellwall integrity by balancing local expansion, controlled by local changes in wall viscosity, against exocytosis, influenced by the activity of the actin cytoskeleton, cellular energetics, and calcium and proton physiology.

Full Text Available The pollen tube is a fast tip-growing cell carrying the two sperm cells to the ovule allowing the double fertilization process and seed setting. To succeed in this process, the spatial and temporal controls of pollen tube growth within the female organ are critical. It requires a massive cellwall deposition to promote fast pollen tube elongation and a tight control of the cellwall remodeling to modify the mechanical properties. In addition, during its journey, the pollen tube interacts with the pistil, which plays key roles in pollen tube nutrition, guidance and in the rejection of the self-incompatible pollen. This review focuses on our current knowledge in the biochemistry and localization of the main cellwall polymers including pectin, hemicellulose, cellulose and callose from several pollen tube species. Moreover, based on transcriptomic data and functional genomic studies, the possible enzymes involved in the cellwall remodeling during pollen tube growth and their impact on the cellwall mechanics are also described. Finally, mutant analyses have permitted to gain insight in the function of several genes involved in the pollen tube cellwall biosynthesis and their roles in pollen tube growth are further discussed.

Dec 17, 2005 ... be attributed to the activities of these cellwall degrading enzymes. Keywords: Cowpea ... bacteria have long been known to produce enzymes capable of ... Inoculated seeds were sown in small plastic pots filled with steam- ...

Plant cellwalls consist of polysaccharides, glycoproteins and phenolic polymers interlinked together in a highly complex network. The detailed analysis of cellwalls is challenging because of their inherent complexity and heterogeneity. Also, complex carbohydrates, unlike proteins and nucleotides...... cannot really be synthesised or sequenced. The work described in this thesis is focused to a large extent on the development of a microarray-based high-throughput method for cellwall analysis known as Comprehensive microarray polymer profiling or CoMPP. The procedure uses highly specific molecular...... probes (monoclonal antibodies mAbs and carbohydrate binding modules, CBMs) to rapidly profile polysaccharides across a sample set. During my PhD I have further developed the CoMPP technique and used it for cellwall analysis within the context of a variety of applied and fundamental projects. The data...

Full Text Available Our search for genes related to cellwall metabolism in the sugarcane expressed sequence tag (SUCEST database (http://sucest.lbi.dcc.unicamp.br resulted in 3,283 reads (1% of the total reads which were grouped into 459 clusters (potential genes with an average of 7.1 reads per cluster. To more clearly display our correlation coefficients, we constructed surface maps which we used to investigate the relationship between cellwall genes and the sugarcane tissues libraries from which they came. The only significant correlations that we found between cellwall genes and/or their expression within particular libraries were neutral or synergetic. Genes related to cellulose biosynthesis were from the CesA family, and were found to be the most abundant cellwall related genes in the SUCEST database. We found that the highest number of CesA reads came from the root and stem libraries. The genes with the greatest number of reads were those involved in cellwall hydrolases (e.g. beta-1,3-glucanases, xyloglucan endo-beta-transglycosylase, beta-glucosidase and endo-beta-mannanase. Correlation analyses by surface mapping revealed that the expression of genes related to biosynthesis seems to be associated with the hydrolysis of hemicelluloses, pectin hydrolases being mainly associated with xyloglucan hydrolases. The patterns of cellwall related gene expression in sugarcane based on the number of reads per cluster reflected quite well the expected physiological characteristics of the tissues. This is the first work to provide a general view on plant cellwall metabolism through the expression of related genes in almost all the tissues of a plant at the same time. For example, developing flowers behaved similarly to both meristematic tissues and leaf-root transition zone tissues. Besides providing a basis for future research on the mechanisms of plant development which involve the cellwall, our findings will provide valuable tools for plant engineering in the

Cellwalls, the extracytoplasmic matrices of plant cells, consist of an ordered array of cellulose microfibrils embedded in a matrix of polysaccharides and glycoproteins. This construction is reminiscent of steel rods in reinforced concrete. How a cell organizes these ordered textures around itself,

Mating of the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, occurs when two haploid cells of opposite mating types signal using reciprocal pheromones and receptors, grow towards each other, and fuse to form a single diploid cell. To fuse, both cells dissolve their cellwalls at the point of contact. This event must be carefully controlled because the osmotic pressure differential between the cytoplasm and extracellular environment causes cells with unprotected plasma membranes to lyse. If the cellwall-degrading enzymes diffuse through the cellwall, their concentration would rise when two cells touched each other, such as when two pheromone-stimulated cells adhere to each other via mating agglutinins. At the surfaces that touch, the enzymes must diffuse laterally through the wall before they can escape into the medium, increasing the time the enzymes spend in the cellwall, and thus raising their concentration at the point of attachment and restricting cellwall dissolution to points where cells touch each other. We tested this hypothesis by studying pheromone treated cells confined between two solid, impermeable surfaces. This confinement increases the frequency of pheromone-induced cell death, and this effect is diminished by reducing the osmotic pressure difference across the cellwall or by deleting putative cellwall glucanases and other genes necessary for efficient cellwall fusion. Our results support the model that pheromone-induced cell death is the result of a contact-driven increase in the local concentration of cellwall remodeling enzymes and suggest that this process plays an important role in regulating cellwall dissolution and fusion in mating cells.

Mating of the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, occurs when two haploid cells of opposite mating types signal using reciprocal pheromones and receptors, grow towards each other, and fuse to form a single diploid cell. To fuse, both cells dissolve their cellwalls at the point of contact. This event must be carefully controlled because the osmotic pressure differential between the cytoplasm and extracellular environment causes cells with unprotected plasma membranes to lyse. If the cellwall-degrading enzymes diffuse through the cellwall, their concentration would rise when two cells touched each other, such as when two pheromone-stimulated cells adhere to each other via mating agglutinins. At the surfaces that touch, the enzymes must diffuse laterally through the wall before they can escape into the medium, increasing the time the enzymes spend in the cellwall, and thus raising their concentration at the point of attachment and restricting cellwall dissolution to points where cells touch each other. We tested this hypothesis by studying pheromone treated cells confined between two solid, impermeable surfaces. This confinement increases the frequency of pheromone-induced cell death, and this effect is diminished by reducing the osmotic pressure difference across the cellwall or by deleting putative cellwall glucanases and other genes necessary for efficient cellwall fusion. Our results support the model that pheromone-induced cell death is the result of a contact-driven increase in the local concentration of cellwall remodeling enzymes and suggest that this process plays an important role in regulating cellwall dissolution and fusion in mating cells. PMID:25329559

About 10% of a plant's genome is devoted to generating the protein machinery to synthesize, remodel, and deconstruct the cellwall. High-throughput genome sequencing technologies have enabled a reasonably complete inventory of wall-related genes that can be assembled into families of common evolutionary origin. Assigning function to each gene family member has been aided immensely by identification of mutants with visible phenotypes or by chemical and spectroscopic analysis of mutants with ‘invisible’ phenotypes of modified cellwall composition and architecture that do not otherwise affect plant growth or development. This review connects the inference of gene function on the basis of deviation from the wild type in genetic functional analyses to insights provided by modern analytical techniques that have brought us ever closer to elucidating the sequence structures of the major polysaccharide components of the plant cellwall.

Full Text Available Abstract Background The ultimate goal of proteomic analysis of a cell compartment should be the exhaustive identification of resident proteins; excluding proteins from other cell compartments. Reaching such a goal closely depends on the reliability of the isolation procedure for the cell compartment of interest. Plant cellwalls possess specific difficulties: (i the lack of a surrounding membrane may result in the loss of cellwall proteins (CWP during the isolation procedure, (ii polysaccharide networks of cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectins form potential traps for contaminants such as intracellular proteins. Several reported procedures to isolate cellwalls for proteomic analyses led to the isolation of a high proportion (more than 50% of predicted intracellular proteins. Since isolated cellwalls should hold secreted proteins, one can imagine alternative procedures to prepare cellwalls containing a lower proportion of contaminant proteins. Results The rationales of several published procedures to isolate cellwalls for proteomics were analyzed, with regard to the bioinformatic-predicted subcellular localization of the identified proteins. Critical steps were revealed: (i homogenization in low ionic strength acid buffer to retain CWP, (ii purification through increasing density cushions, (iii extensive washes with a low ionic strength acid buffer to retain CWP while removing as many cytosolic proteins as possible, and (iv absence of detergents. A new procedure was developed to prepare cellwalls from etiolated hypocotyls of Arabidopsis thaliana. After salt extraction, a high proportion of proteins predicted to be secreted was released (73%, belonging to the same functional classes as proteins identified using previously described protocols. Finally, removal of intracellular proteins was obtained using detergents, but their amount represented less than 3% in mass of the total protein extract, based on protein quantification. Conclusion The

Full Text Available Expansive growth of plant cell is conditioned by the cellwall ability to extend irreversibly. This process is possible if (i a tensile stress is developed in the cellwall due to the coupling effect between turgor pressure and the modulation of its mechanical properties through enzymatic and physicochemical reactions and if (ii new cellwall elements can be synthesized and assembled to the existing wall. In other words, expansive growth is the result of coupling effects between mechanical, thermal and chemical energy. To have a better understanding of this process, models must describe the interplay between physical or mechanical variable with biological events. In this paper we propose a general unified and theoretical framework to model growth in function of energy forms and their coupling. This framework is based on irreversible thermodynamics. It is then applied to model growth of the internodal cell of Chara corallina modulated by changes in pressure and temperature. The results describe accurately cell growth in term of length increment but also in term of cell pectate biosynthesis and incorporation to the expanding wall. Moreover, the classical growth model based on Lockhart's equation such as the one proposed by Ortega, appears as a particular and restrictive case of the more general growth equation developed in this paper.

staining with fluorescent dyes is a valuable tool. Furthermore, cellwall staining is used to facilitate sub-cellular localization experiments with fluorescently-labeled proteins and the detection of yeast cells in non-fungal host tissues. Here, we report staining of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cellwall......Yeast cells are protected by a cellwall that plays an important role in the exchange of substances with the environment. The cellwall structure is dynamic and can adapt to different physiological states or environmental conditions. For the investigation of morphological changes, selective...... with Trypan Blue, which emits strong red fluorescence upon binding to chitin and yeast glucan; thereby, it facilitates cellwall analysis by confocal and super-resolution microscopy. The staining pattern of Trypan Blue was similar to that of the widely used UV-excitable, blue fluorescent cellwall stain...

Pd nanoparticles were introduced to individual Bacillus cells and dispersedly anchored on both the inside and outside of the cellwalls. The anchored nanoparticles served as "seeds" to drive the formation of double metallic layers forming a metal-cellwall-metal sandwich structure at the single-cell level.

Atomic force microscopy, and related nano-indentation techniques, is a valuable tool for analyzing the elastic properties of plant cellwalls as they relate to changes in cellwall chemistry, changes in development, and response to hormones. Within this chapter I will describe a method for analyzing the effect of the phytohormone auxin on the cellwall elasticity of tobacco BY-2 cells. This general method may be easily altered for different experimental systems and hormones of interest.

Segregation was studied by measuring the positions of autoradiographic grain clusters in chains formed from single cells containing on average less than one radiolabeled chromosome strand. The degree to which chromosomal and cellwall material cosegregated was quantified by using the methods of S. Cooper and M. Weinberger, dividing the number of chains labeled at the middle. This analysis indicated that in contrast to chromosomal segregation in Escherichia coli and, in some studies, to that in gram-positive rods, chromosomal segregation in Streptococcus faecium was slightly nonrandom and did not vary with growth rate. Results were not significantly affected by strand exchange. In contrast, labeled cellwall segregated predominantly nonrandomly

The plant cellwall is an important and abundant biomass with great potential for use as a modern recyclable resource. For effective utilization of this cellulosic biomass, its ability to degrade efficiently is key point. With the aim of modifying the cellwall to allow easy decomposition, we used chemical biological technology to alter its structure. As a first step toward evaluating the chemicals in the cellwall we employed a phenotype-based approach using high-throughput screening. As the plant cellwall is essential in determining cell morphology, phenotype-based screening is particularly effective in identifying compounds that bring about alterations in the cellwall. For rapid and reproducible screening, tobacco BY-2 cell is an excellent system in which to observe cell morphology. In this chapter, we provide a detailed chemical biological methodology for studying cell morphology using tobacco BY-2 cells.

Single suspension-cultured plant cells (Catharanthus roseus) and their protoplasts were anchored to a glass plate and exposed to a magnetic field of 302 +/- 8 mT for several hours. Compression forces required to produce constant cell deformation were measured parallel to the magnetic field by means of a cantilever-type force sensor. Exposure of intact cells to the magnetic field did not result in any changes within experimental error, while exposure of regenerating protoplasts significantly increased the measured forces and stiffened regenerating protoplasts. The diameters of intact cells or regenerating protoplasts were not changed after exposure to the magnetic field. Measured forces for regenerating protoplasts with and without exposure to the magnetic field increased linearly with incubation time, with these forces being divided into components based on the elasticity of synthesized cellwalls and cytoplasm. Cellwall synthesis was also measured using a cellwall-specific fluorescent dye, and no changes were noted after exposure to the magnetic field. Analysis suggested that exposure to the magnetic field roughly tripled the Young's modulus of the newly synthesized cellwall without any lag.

Plant cellwall composition is thought to reflect cellular responses to developmental and environmental signals. We have purified a 33 kDa protein from cellwall extracts of soybean seedlings which is most abundant in extracts from the hook region of the hypocotyl and is rich in proline and hydroxypyroline. In vivo 3 H-proline labelling of hypocotyl tissues indicates that the hook tissue is the predominant site for synthesis of this protein. In unwounded hook, label is incorporated into a 33 kDa protein, while in wounded hook this and additional proteins rich in proline are synthesized. Similarly treated cellwall extracts analyzed by Western blot analysis, using a polyclonal antibody raised against this 33kD protein, showed that the 33 kDa protein is most abundant in cellwall extracts from the hook region of unwounded seedlings and does not increase upon wounding. An immunologically related 35kD protein is also apparent in extracts from wounded hooks and appears to co-migrate with one of the labelled proteins extractable from this tissue. These data indicate that there are two related, proline-rich cellwall proteins in the hook region of soybean seedlings, one of which (33 kDa) is prominent during seedling development and another (35 kDa) which is wound inducible

The peptidoglycan cellwall of bacteria is responsible for maintaining the cell shape and integrity. During the bacterial life cycle, the growth of the cellwall is affected by mechanical stress and osmotic pressure internal to the cell. We develop a theory to describe cell shape changes under the influence of mechanical forces. We find that the theory predicts a steady state size and shape for bacterial cells ranging from cocci to spirillum. Moreover, the theory suggest a mechanism by which bacterial cytoskeletal proteins such as MreB and crescentin can maintain the shape of the cell. The theory can also explain the several recent experiments on growing bacteria in micro-environments.

Cellwalls of five Gram-positive bacterial strains, including four coryneforms and a Bacillus brevis strain were isolated and subsequently chemically analysed. The wall contribution to the total cell mass is calculated from a comparison of D-Lactate concentrations in hydrolysates of whole cells and

Recent research into various aspects of bacterial metabolism such as cellwall and antibiotic synthesis, degradation pathways, cellular stress, and amino acid biosynthesis has elucidated roles of aminoacyl-transfer ribonucleic acid (aa-tRNA) outside of translation. Although the two enzyme families...... responsible for cellwall modifications, aminoacyl-phosphatidylglycerol synthases (aaPGSs) and Fem, were discovered some time ago, they have recently become of intense interest for their roles in the antimicrobial resistance of pathogenic microorganisms. The addition of positively charged amino acids...... and play a role in resistance to antibiotics that target the cellwall. Additionally, the formation of truncated peptides results in shorter peptide bridges and loss of branched linkages which makes bacteria more susceptible to antimicrobials. A greater understanding of the structure and substrate...

Irradiation effects in peaches, tomatoes, cherries and grapes on the composition of cellwall polysaccharides were investigated by histochemical techniques. Cellwall polysaccharides, separated by a modified Jensen's method were pectins, hemicellulose, non-cellulosic polysaccharides and cellulose. The extinction values of Periodic Acid Schiff stained tissues was measured by microscopical photometry. Irradiation induced highly significant changes in polysaccharide composition of mesocarp cellwalls; these changes were found to be a function of time of irradiation after harvest and of the species tested. A general influence on polysaccharide molecules was not found. Variations produced by irradiation are postulated to be an interference with a regulatory system rather than a breakdown of a functional molecule (metabolic enzyme or polysaccharide. (author)

The battle between plants and microbes is evolutionarily ancient, highly complex, and often co-dependent. A primary challenge for microbes is to breach the physical barrier of host cellwalls whilst avoiding detection by the plant's immune receptors. While some receptors sense conserved microbial...... features, others monitor physical changes caused by an infection attempt. Detection of microbes leads to activation of appropriate defense responses that then challenge the attack. Plant cellwalls are formidable and dynamic barriers. They are constructed primarily of complex carbohydrates joined...... by numerous distinct connection types, and are subject to extensive post-synthetic modification to suit prevailing local requirements. Multiple changes can be triggered in cellwalls in response to microbial attack. Some of these are well described, but many remain obscure. The study of the myriad of subtle...

During recent years it has become accepted that plant cellwalls are not inert objects surrounding all plant cells but are instead highly dynamic, plastic structures. They are involved in a large number of cell biological processes and contribute actively to plant growth, development and interaction with environment. Therefore, it is not surprising that cellular processes can control plant cellwall integrity while, simultaneously, cellwall integrity can influence cellular processes. In yeast and animal cells such a bi-directional relationship also exists between the yeast/animal extra-cellular matrices and the cell cycle. In yeast, the cellwall integrity maintenance mechanism and a dedicated plasmamembrane integrity checkpoint are mediating this relationship. Recent research has yielded insights into the mechanism controlling plant cellwall metabolism during cytokinesis. However, knowledge regarding putative regulatory pathways controlling adaptive modifications in plant cell cycle activity in response to changes in the state of the plant cellwall are not yet identified. In this review, we summarize similarities and differences in regulatory mechanisms coordinating extra cellular matrices and cell cycle activity in animal and yeast cells, discuss the available evidence supporting the existence of such a mechanism in plants and suggest that the plant cellwall integrity maintenance mechanism might also control cell cycle activity in plant cells. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Development of vascular and hematopoietic systems during organogenesis occurs at the same time. During vasculogenesis, a small part of cells does not undergo complete differentiation but stays on this level, "anchored" in tissue structures described as stem cell niches. The presence of blood vessels within tissue stem cell niches is typical and led to identification of niches and ensures that they are functioning. The three-layer biostructure of vessel walls for artery and vein, tunica: intima, media and adventitia, for a long time was defined as a mechanical barrier between vessel light and the local tissue environment. Recent findings from vascular biology studies indicate that vessel walls are dynamic biostructures, which are equipped with stem and progenitor cells, described as vascular wall-resident stem cells/progenitor cells (VW-SC/PC). Distinct zones for vessel wall harbor heterogeneous subpopulations of VW-SC/PC, which are described as "subendothelial or vasculogenic zones". Recent evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies show that prenatal activity of stem and progenitor cells is not only limited to organogenesis but also exists in postnatal life, where it is responsible for vessel wall homeostasis, remodeling and regeneration. It is believed that VW-SC/PC could be engaged in progression of vascular disorders and development of neointima. We would like to summarize current knowledge about mesenchymal and progenitor stem cell phenotype with special attention to distribution and biological properties of VW-SC/PC in biostructures of intima, media and adventitia niches. It is postulated that in the near future, niches for VW-SC/PC could be a good source of stem and progenitor cells, especially in the context of vessel tissue bioengineering as a new alternative to traditional revascularization therapies.

Full Text Available Development of vascular and hematopoietic systems during organogenesis occurs at the same time. During vasculogenesis, a small part of cells does not undergo complete differentiation but stays on this level, “anchored” in tissue structures described as stem cell niches. The presence of blood vessels within tissue stem cell niches is typical and led to identification of niches and ensures that they are functioning. The three-layer biostructure of vessel walls for artery and vein, tunica: intima, media and adventitia, for a long time was defined as a mechanical barrier between vessel light and the local tissue environment. Recent findings from vascular biology studies indicate that vessel walls are dynamic biostructures, which are equipped with stem and progenitor cells, described as vascular wall-resident stem cells/progenitor cells (VW-SC/PC. Distinct zones for vessel wall harbor heterogeneous subpopulations of VW-SC/PC, which are described as “subendothelial or vasculogenic zones”. Recent evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies show that prenatal activity of stem and progenitor cells is not only limited to organogenesis but also exists in postnatal life, where it is responsible for vessel wall homeostasis, remodeling and regeneration. It is believed that VW-SC/PC could be engaged in progression of vascular disorders and development of neointima. We would like to summarize current knowledge about mesenchymal and progenitor stem cell phenotype with special attention to distribution and biological properties of VW-SC/PC in biostructures of intima, media and adventitia niches. It is postulated that in the near future, niches for VW-SC/PC could be a good source of stem and progenitor cells, especially in the context of vessel tissue bioengineering as a new alternative to traditional revascularization therapies.

Full Text Available Colonization of terrestrial ecosystems by the first land plants, and their subsequent expansion and diversification, were crucial for the life on the Earth. However, our understanding of these processes is still relatively poor. Recent intensification of studies on various plant organisms have identified the plant cellwalls are those structures, which played a key role in adaptive processes during the evolution of land plants. Cellwall as a structure protecting protoplasts and showing a high structural plasticity was one of the primary subjects to changes, giving plants the new properties and capabilities, which undoubtedly contributed to the evolutionary success of land plants. In this paper, the current state of knowledge about some main components of the cellwalls (cellulose, hemicelluloses, pectins and lignins and their evolutionary alterations, as preadaptive features for the land colonization and the plant taxa diversification, is summarized. Some aspects related to the biosynthesis and modification of the cellwall components, with particular emphasis on the mechanism of transglycosylation, are also discussed. In addition, new surprising discoveries related to the composition of various cellwalls, which change how we perceive their evolution, are presented, such as the presence of lignin in red algae or MLG (1→3,(1→4-β-D-glucan in horsetails. Currently, several new and promising projects, regarding the cellwall, have started, deciphering its structure, composition and metabolism in the evolutionary context. That additional information will allow us to better understand the processes leading to the terrestrialization and the evolution of extant land plants.

Cell cultures are extremely important to the medical community since such cultures provide an opportunity to perform research on human tissue without the concerns inherent in experiments on individual humans. Development of cells in cultures has been found to be greatly influenced by the conditions of the culture. Much work has focused on the effect of the motions of cells in the culture relative to the solution. Recently rotating wall vessels have been used with success in achieving improved cellular cultures. Speculation and limited research have focused on the low shear environment and the ability of rotating vessels to keep cells suspended in solution rather than floating or sedimenting as the primary reasons for the improved cellular cultures using these devices. It is widely believed that the cultures obtained using a rotating wall vessel simulates to some degree the effect of microgravity on cultures. It has also been speculated that the microgravity environment may provide the ideal acceleration environment for culturing of cellular tissues due to the nearly negligible levels of sedimentation and shear possible. This work predicts particle trajectories of cells in rotating wall vessels of cylindrical and annular design consistent with the estimated properties of typical cellular cultures. Estimates of the shear encountered by cells in solution and the interactions with walls are studied. Comparisons of potential experiments in ground and microgravity environments are performed.

Interactions between grape tannins/red wine polyphenols and yeast cells/cellwalls was previously studied within the framework of red wine aging and the use of yeast-derived products as an alternative to aging on lees. Results evidenced a quite different behavior between whole cells (biomass grown to elaborate yeast-derived products, inactivated yeast, and yeast inactivated after autolysis) and yeast cellwalls (obtained from mechanical disruption of the biomass). Briefly, whole cells exhibited a high capacity to irreversibly adsorb grape and wine tannins, whereas only weak interactions were observed for cellwalls. This last point was quite unexpected considering the literature and called into question the real role of cellwalls in yeasts' ability to fix tannins. In the present work, tannin location after interactions between grape and wine tannins and yeast cells and cellwalls was studied by means of transmission electron microscopy, light epifluorescence, and confocal microscopy. Microscopy observations evidenced that if tannins interact with cellwalls, and especially cellwall mannoproteins, they also diffuse freely through the walls of dead cells to interact with their plasma membrane and cytoplasmic components.

Protein haze formation in bottled wines is a significant concern for the global wine industry and wine clarification before bottling is therefore a common but expensive practice. Previous studies have shown that wine yeast strains can reduce haze formation through the secretion of certain mannoproteins, but it has been suggested that other yeast-dependent haze protective mechanisms exist. On the other hand, addition of chitin has been shown to reduce haze formation, likely because grape chitinases have been shown to be the major contributors to haze. In this study, Chardonnay grape must fermented by various yeast strains resulted in wines with different protein haze levels indicating differences in haze protective capacities of the strains. The cellwall chitin levels of these strains were determined, and a strong correlation between cellwall chitin levels and haze protection capability was observed. To further evaluate the mechanism of haze protection, Escherichia coli -produced GFP-tagged grape chitinase was shown to bind efficiently to yeast cellwalls in a cellwall chitin concentration-dependent manner, while commercial chitinase was removed from synthetic wine in quantities also correlated with the cellwall chitin levels of the strains. Our findings suggest a new mechanism of reducing wine haze, and propose a strategy for optimizing wine yeast strains to improve wine clarification. Importance In this study, we establish a new mechanism by which wine yeast strains can impact on the protein haze formation of wines, and demonstrate that yeast cellwall chitin binds grape chitinase in a chitin-concentration dependent manner. We also show that yeast can remove this haze-forming protein from wine. Chitin has in the past been shown to efficiently reduce wine haze formation when added to the wine in high concentration as a clarifying agent. Our data suggest that the selection of yeast strains with high levels of cellwall chitin can reduce protein haze. We also

The shape of a bacterial cell is maintained by its peptidoglycan sacculus that completely surrounds the cytoplasmic membrane. During growth the sacculus is enlarged by peptidoglycan synthesis complexes that are controlled by components linked to the cytoskeleton and, in Gram-negative bacteria, by

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare highly malignant tumour. There have been previous descriptions of the CT appearances of this tumour, but to our knowledge this is the first MRI description. MRI may be a more sensitive method of initial evaluation of the local extension of the primary tumour. (orig.)

Our work focuses on understanding the lifetime and thus stability of the three main cellulose synthase (CESA) proteins involved in primary cellwall synthesis of Arabidopsis. It had long been thought that a major means of CESA regulation was via their rapid degradation. However, our studies here have uncovered that AtCESA proteins are not rapidly degraded. Rather, they persist for an extended time in the plant cell. Plant cellulose is synthesized by membrane-embedded cellulose synthase complexes (CSCs). The CSC is composed of cellulose synthases (CESAs), of which three distinct isozymes form the primary cellwall CSC and another set of three isozymes form the secondary cellwall CSC. We determined the stability over time of primary cellwall (PCW) CESAs in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings, using immunoblotting after inhibiting protein synthesis with cycloheximide treatment. Our work reveals very slow turnover for the Arabidopsis PCW CESAs in vivo. Additionally, we show that the stability of all three CESAs within the PCW CSC is altered by mutations in individual CESAs, elevated temperature, and light conditions. Together, these results suggest that CESA proteins are very stable in vivo, but that their lifetimes can be modulated by intrinsic and environmental cues.

The remarkable mechanical properties of biological materials reside in their complex hierarchical architecture and in specific molecular mechanistic phenomena. The fundamental importance of molecular interactions and bond recovery has been suggested by studies on deformation and fracture of bone and nacre. Like these mineral-based materials, wood also represents a complex nanocomposite with excellent mechanical performance, despite the fact that it is mainly based on polymers. In wood, however, the mechanistic contribution of processes in the cellwall is not fully understood. Here we have combined tensile tests on individual wood cells and on wood foils with simultaneous synchrotron X-ray diffraction analysis in order to separate deformation mechanisms inside the cellwall from those mediated by cell-cell interactions. We show that tensile deformation beyond the yield point does not deteriorate the stiffness of either individual cells or foils. This indicates that there is a dominant recovery mechanism that re-forms the amorphous matrix between the cellulose microfibrils within the cellwall, maintaining its mechanical properties. This stick-slip mechanism, rather like Velcro operating at the nanometre level, provides a 'plastic response' similar to that effected by moving dislocations in metals. We suggest that the molecular recovery mechanism in the cell matrix is a universal phenomenon dominating the tensile deformation of different wood tissue types.

A theory of cellwall extension is proposed. It is shown that macroscopic properties of cellwalls can be explained through the microscopic properties of interpenetrating networks of cellulose and hemicellulose. The qualitative conclusions of the theory agree with the existing experimental data. The dependence of the cellwall yield threshold on the secretion of the wall components is discussed.

The plant cellwall is a complex network of different polysaccharides and glycoproteins, showing high diversity in nature. The essential components, tethering cellwall are under debate, as novel mutants challenge established models. The mutant ugd2,3 with a reduced supply of the important wall precursor UDP-glucuronic acid reveals the critical role of the pectic compound rhamnogalacturonanII for cellwall stability. This polymer seems to be more important for cellwall integrity than the pre...

The growing cellwall in plants has conflicting requirements to be strong enough to withstand the high tensile forces generated by cell turgor pressure while selectively yielding to those forces to induce wall stress relaxation, leading to water uptake and polymer movements underlying cellwall expansion. In this article, I review emerging concepts of plant primary cellwall structure, the nature of wall extensibility and the action of expansins, family-9 and -12 endoglucanases, family-16 xyl...

1. The digestibility of the cellwall polysaccharides of an alkane-grown yeast in different parts of the digestive tract of two veal calves fitted with re-entrant cannulas at the end of the ileum was studied by replacing part of the skim-milk powder of their ‘normal’, milk-substitute

The effect of calcium in the nutrient medium on kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum Hochst), grown in a solution culture, was investigated. Calcium had no effect on the lignin content of leaf material, but decreased the lignin content per unit stem cellwall. Calcium appeared to have no significant effect on either the ...

Jan 25, 2010 ... intron. It had a high homology to previously cloned cellwall acid invertase genes in other plants by sequence .... Japan) in a final volume of 50 µl. The programs for ... The first strand of cDNA was synthesized by using SYBR ...

Apart from its well known uses in the human diet a large amount of the grown potatoes (about one third in the Netherlands) is used for the isolation of starch which is used in several food and non-food applications. The cellwall fibres comprise a large portion of the waste material remaining

. Here we put forward a simple model based on mechanical principles capable of capturing the result of the interaction between mechanical forces and cellwall weakening via hydrolysis of glucosidic bonds. This study illustrates that basic material science insights are relevant also within biochemistry...

The plant cellwalls represent almost 50% of the biomass found in plants and are therefore one of the main targets for biotechnological research. Major motivators are their potential as a renewable energy source for transport fuels, as functional foods, and as a source of raw materials to generate...

In an attempt to develop a process of enzymatic peeling of mandarin segments suitable for use on an industrial scale, the cellwall fraction of the segment membrane of Satsuma mandarin fruits was extracted to obtain a chelating agent-soluble pectin fraction (ChSS), a dilute sodium hydroxide-soluble

1. A glycoprotein containing a large amount of hydroxyproline is present in the cellwalls of sycamore callus cells. This protein is insoluble and remained in the alpha-cellulose when a mild separation procedure was used to obtain the polysaccharide fractions of the wall. The glycoprotein contained a high proportion of arabinose and galactose. 2. Soluble glycopeptides were prepared from the alpha-cellulose fraction when peptide bonds were broken by hydrazinolysis. The soluble material was fractionated by gel filtration and one glycopeptide was further purified by electrophoresis; it had a composition of 10% hydroxyproline, 35% arabinose and 55% galactose, and each hydroxyproline residue carried a glycosyl radical so that the oligosaccharides on the glycopeptide had an average degree of polymerization of 9. 3. The extraction of the glycopeptides was achieved without cleavage of glycosyl bonds, so that the glycoprotein cannot act as a covalent cross-link between the major polysaccharides of the wall. 4. The wall protein approximates in conformation to polyhydroxyproline and therefore it probably has similar physicochemical properties to polyhydroxyproline. This is discussed in relation to the function of the glycoprotein and its effect on the physical and chemical nature of the wall.

Full Text Available In this article we describe two techniques for exploring the relationship between bacterial cell shape and the intracellular organization of proteins. First, we created microchannels in a layer of agarose to reshape live bacterial cells and predictably control their mean cellwall curvature, and quantified the influence of curvature on the localization and distribution of proteins in vivo. Second, we used agarose microchambers to reshape bacteria whose cellwall had been chemically and enzymatically removed. By combining microstructures with different geometries and fluorescence microscopy, we determined the relationship between bacterial shape and the localization for two different membrane-associated proteins: i the cell-shape related protein MreB of Escherichia coli, which is positioned along the long axis of the rod-shaped cell; and ii the negative curvature-sensing cell division protein DivIVA of Bacillus subtilis, which is positioned primarily at cell division sites. Our studies of intracellular organization in live cells of E. coli and B. subtilis demonstrate that MreB is largely excluded from areas of high negative curvature, whereas DivIVA localizes preferentially to regions of high negative curvature. These studies highlight a unique approach for studying the relationship between cell shape and intracellular organization in intact, live bacteria.

Full Text Available Yeast cells are protected by a cellwall that plays an important role in the exchange of substances with the environment. The cellwall structure is dynamic and can adapt to different physiological states or environmental conditions. For the investigation of morphological changes, selective staining with fluorescent dyes is a valuable tool. Furthermore, cellwall staining is used to facilitate sub-cellular localization experiments with fluorescently-labeled proteins and the detection of yeast cells in non-fungal host tissues. Here, we report staining of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cellwall with Trypan Blue, which emits strong red fluorescence upon binding to chitin and yeast glucan; thereby, it facilitates cellwall analysis by confocal and super-resolution microscopy. The staining pattern of Trypan Blue was similar to that of the widely used UV-excitable, blue fluorescent cellwall stain Calcofluor White. Trypan Blue staining facilitated quantification of cell size and cellwall volume when utilizing the optical sectioning capacity of a confocal microscope. This enabled the quantification of morphological changes during growth under anaerobic conditions and in the presence of chemicals, demonstrating the potential of this approach for morphological investigations or screening assays.

Yeast cells are protected by a cellwall that plays an important role in the exchange of substances with the environment. The cellwall structure is dynamic and can adapt to different physiological states or environmental conditions. For the investigation of morphological changes, selective staining with fluorescent dyes is a valuable tool. Furthermore, cellwall staining is used to facilitate sub-cellular localization experiments with fluorescently-labeled proteins and the detection of yeast cells in non-fungal host tissues. Here, we report staining of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cellwall with Trypan Blue, which emits strong red fluorescence upon binding to chitin and yeast glucan; thereby, it facilitates cellwall analysis by confocal and super-resolution microscopy. The staining pattern of Trypan Blue was similar to that of the widely used UV-excitable, blue fluorescent cellwall stain Calcofluor White. Trypan Blue staining facilitated quantification of cell size and cellwall volume when utilizing the optical sectioning capacity of a confocal microscope. This enabled the quantification of morphological changes during growth under anaerobic conditions and in the presence of chemicals, demonstrating the potential of this approach for morphological investigations or screening assays.

The growth of a plant cell encompasses a complex set of subcellular components interacting in a highly coordinated fashion. Ultimately, these activities create specific cellwall structural domains that regulate the prime force of expansion, internally generated turgor pressure. The precise organization of the polymeric networks of the cellwall around the protoplast also contributes to the direction of growth, the shape of the cell, and the proper positioning of the cell in a tissue. In essence, plant cell expansion represents the foundation of development. Most studies of plant cell expansion have focused primarily upon late divergent multicellular land plants and specialized cell types (e.g., pollen tubes, root hairs). Here, we describe a unicellular green alga, Penium margaritaceum (Penium), which can serve as a valuable model organism for understanding cell expansion and the underlying mechanics of the cellwall in a single plant cell.

This project aims to identify the regulatory genes of rice cellwall synthesis pathways using a cellwall removal and regeneration system. We completed the gene expression profiling studies following the time course from cellwall removal to cellwall regeneration in rice suspension cells. We also completed, total proteome, nuclear subproteome and histone modification studies following the course from cellwall removal and cellwall regeneration process. A large number of differentially expressed regulatory genes and proteins were identified. Meanwhile, we generated RNAi and over-expression transgenic rice for 45 genes with at least 10 independent transgenic lines for each gene. In addition, we ordered T-DNA and transposon insertion mutants for 60 genes from Korea, Japan, and France and characterized the mutants. Overall, we have mutants and transgenic lines for over 90 genes, exceeded our proposed goal of generating mutants for 50 genes. Interesting Discoveries a) Cellwall re-synthesis in protoplasts may involve a novel cellwall synthesis mechanism. The synthesis of the primary cellwall is initiated in late cytokinesis with further modification during cell expansion. Phragmoplast plays an essential role in cellwall synthesis. It services as a scaffold for building the cell plate and formation of a new cellwall. Only one phragmoplast and one new cellwall is produced for each dividing cell. When the cellwall was removed enzymatically, we found that cellwall re-synthesis started from multiple locations simultaneously, suggesting that a novel mechanism is involved in cellwall re-synthesis. This observation raised many interesting questions, such as how the starting sites of cellwall synthesis are determined, whether phragmoplast and cell plate like structures are involved in cellwall re-synthesis, and more importantly whether the same set of enzymes and apparatus are used in cellwall re-synthesis as during cytokinesis. Given that many known cellwall

The plant cellwall is a chemically complex network composed mainly of polysaccharides. Cellwall polysaccharides surround and protect plant cells and are responsible for the stability and rigidity of plant tissue. Pectin is a major component of primary cellwall and the middle lamella of plants.

Pectin is a complex polysaccharide and an integral part of the primary plant cellwall and middle lamella, contributing to cellwall mechanical strength and cell adhesion. To understand the structure-function relationships of pectin in the cellwall, a set of transgenic potato lines with altered...

Root growth is different in plants with different levels of Al-tolerance under Al stress. Cellwall chemical components of root tip cell are related to root growth. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between root growth difference and cellwall chemical components. For this purpose, the cellwall chemical ...

The Reduced Wall Acetylation (RWA) proteins are involved in cellwall acetylation in plants. Previously, we described a single mutant, rwa2, which has about 20% lower level of O-acetylation in leaf cellwalls and no obvious growth or developmental phenotype. In this study, we generated double....... The quadruple rwa mutant can be completely complemented with the RWA2 protein expressed under 35S promoter, indicating the functional redundancy of the RWA proteins. Nevertheless, the degree of acetylation of xylan, (gluco) mannan, and xyloglucan as well as overall cellwall acetylation is affected differently...... in different combinations of triple mutants, suggesting their diversity in substrate preference. The overall degree of wall acetylation in the rwa quadruple mutant was reduced by 63% compared with the wild type, and histochemical analysis of the rwa quadruple mutant stem indicates defects in cell...

adopt defined 3D organization to allow their composition/interactions to be tweaked upon developmental need. Failure to build functional cellwall architecture will affect plant growth and resistance to stresses. In this PhD dissertation I explored the role of pectin acetylation in controlling...... wall organization, namely polysaccharides-to-polysaccharides interactions. These results suggest that cellwall acetylation is a mechanism that plants evolved to control cellwall organization. In Manuscript III, we report the characterization of Arabidopsis mutants trichome birefringence like (tbl) 10......All plant cells are surrounded by one or more cellwall layers. The cellwall serves as a stiff mechanical support while it allows cells to expand and provide a protective barrier to invading pathogens. Cellwalls are dynamic structures composed of entangled cellwall polysaccharides that must...

Turgor-driven plant cell growth depends on cellwall structure and mechanics. Strengthening of cellwalls on the basis of an association and interaction with silicon (Si) could lead to improved nutrient uptake and optimized growth and metabolism in rice (Oryza sativa). However, the structural basis and physiological mechanisms of nutrient uptake and metabolism optimization under Si assistance remain obscure. Single-cell level biophysical measurements, including in situ non-invasive micro-testing (NMT) of NH4+ ion fluxes, atomic force microscopy (AFM) of cellwalls, and electrolyte leakage and membrane potential, as well as whole-cell proteomics using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ), were performed. The altered cellwall structure increases the uptake rate of the main nutrient NH4+ in Si-accumulating cells, whereas the rate is only half in Si-deprived counterparts. Rigid cellwalls enhanced by a wall-bound form of Si as the structural basis stabilize cell membranes. This, in turn, optimizes nutrient uptake of the cells in the same growth phase without any requirement for up-regulation of transmembrane ammonium transporters. Optimization of cellular nutrient acquisition strategies can substantially improve performance in terms of growth, metabolism and stress resistance.

The adhesion of plant cells is vital for support and protection of the plant body and is maintained by a variety of molecular associations between cellwall components. In some specialized cases, though, plant cells are programmed to detach, and root cap-derived border cells are examples of this. Border cells (in some species known as border-like cells) provide an expendable barrier between roots and the environment. Their maturation and release is an important but poorly characterized cell separation event. To gain a deeper insight into the complex cellular dynamics underlying this process, we undertook a systematic, detailed analysis of pea (Pisum sativum) root tip cellwalls. Our study included immunocarbohydrate microarray profiling, monosaccharide composition determination, Fourier-transformed infrared microspectroscopy, quantitative reverse transcription-PCR of cellwall biosynthetic genes, analysis of hydrolytic activities, transmission electron microscopy, and immunolocalization of cellwall components. Using this integrated glycobiology approach, we identified multiple novel modes of cellwall structural and compositional rearrangement during root cap growth and the release of border cells. Our findings provide a new level of detail about border cell maturation and enable us to develop a model of the separation process. We propose that loss of adhesion by the dissolution of homogalacturonan in the middle lamellae is augmented by an active biophysical process of cell curvature driven by the polarized distribution of xyloglucan and extensin epitopes. PMID:28400496

Photovoltaics, more generally known as solar cells, are made from semiconducting materials that convert light into electricity. Solar cells have received much attention in recent years due to their promise as clean and efficient light-harvesting devices. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) could play a crucial role in these devices and have been the subject of much research, which continues to this day. SWNTs are known to outperform multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) at low densities, because of the difference in their optical transmittance for the same current density, which is the most important parameter in comparing SWNTs and MWNTs. SWNT films show semiconducting features, which make SWNTs function as active or charge-transporting materials. This chapter, consisting of two sections, focuses on the use of SWNTs in solar cells. In the first section, we discuss SWNTs as a light harvester and charge transporter in the photoactive layer, which are reviewed chronologically to show the history of the research progress. In the second section, we discuss SWNTs as a transparent conductive layer outside of the photoactive layer, which is relatively more actively researched. This section introduces SWNT applications in silicon solar cells, organic solar cells, and perovskite solar cells each, from their prototypes to recent results. As we go along, the science and prospects of the application of solar cells will be discussed.

The cellwall defines cell shape and maintains integrity of fungi and plants. When exposed to mating pheromone, Saccharomyces cerevisiae grows a mating projection and alters in morphology from spherical to shmoo form. Although structural and compositional alterations of the cellwall accompany shape transitions, their impact on cellwall elasticity is unknown. In a combined theoretical and experimental approach using finite-element modelling and atomic force microscopy (AFM), we investigated the influence of spatially and temporally varying material properties on mating morphogenesis. Time-resolved elasticity maps of shmooing yeast acquired with AFM in vivo revealed distinct patterns, with soft material at the emerging mating projection and stiff material at the tip. The observed cellwall softening in the protrusion region is necessary for the formation of the characteristic shmoo shape, and results in wider and longer mating projections. The approach is generally applicable to tip-growing fungi and plants cells. PMID:27605377

Full Text Available The capability of yeast to adsorb patulin in fruit juice can aid in substantially reducing the patulin toxic effect on human health. This study aimed to investigate the capability of yeast cell morphology and cellwall internal structure and composition to adsorb patulin. To compare different yeast cell morphologies, cellwall internal structure and composition, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and ion chromatography were used. The results indicated that patulin adsorption capability of yeast was influenced by cell surface areas, volume, and cellwall thickness, as well as 1,3-β-glucan content. Among these factors, cellwall thickness and 1,3-β-glucan content serve significant functions. The investigation revealed that patulin adsorption capability was mainly affected by the three-dimensional network structure of the cellwall composed of 1,3-β-glucan. Finally, patulin adsorption in commercial kiwi fruit juice was investigated, and the results indicated that yeast cells could adsorb patulin from commercial kiwi fruit juice efficiently. This study can potentially simulate in vitro cellwalls to enhance patulin adsorption capability and successfully apply to fruit juice industry.

The overall goal of the revised scope of work for the final year of funding was to characterize cellwall biosynthesis in developing cotyledons and in the shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis thaliana, as a way of learning about developmental control of cellwall biosynthesis in plants, and interactions between cellwall biosynthesis and the microtubule cytoskeleton. The proposed work had two parts – to look at the effect of mutation in the SPIRAL2 gene on microtubule organization and reorganization, and to thoroughly characterize the glycosyltransferase genes expressed in shoot apical meristems by RNA-seq experiments, by in situ hybridization of the RNAs expressed in the meristem, and by antibody staining of the products of the glycosyltransferases in meristems. Both parts were completed; the spiral2 mutant was found to speed microtubule reorientation after ablation of adjacent cells, supporting our hypothesis that reorganization correlates with microtubule severing, the rate of which is increased by the mutation. The glycosyltransferase characterization was completed and published as Yang et al. (2016). Among the new things learned was that primary cellwall biosynthesis is strongly controlled both by cell type, and by stage of cell cycle, implying not only that different, even adjacent, cells can have different sugar linkages in their (nonshared) walls, but also that a surprisingly large proportion of glycosyltransferases is regulated in the cell cycle, and therefore that the cell cycle regulates wall maturation to a degree previously unrecognized.

Asparagus byproducts are a good source of cationic soluble peroxidases (CAP) useful for the bioremediation of phenol-contaminated wastewaters. In this study, cellwall bound peroxidases (POD) from the same byproducts have been purified and characterized. The covalent forms of POD represent >90% of the total cellwall bound POD. Isoelectric focusing showed that whereas the covalent fraction is constituted primarily by anionic isoenzymes, the ionic fraction is a mixture of anionic, neutral, and cationic isoenzymes. Covalently bound peroxidases were purified by means of ion exchange chromatography and affinity chromatography. In vitro detoxification studies showed that although CAP are more effective for the removal of 4-CP and 2,4-DCP, anionic asparagus peroxidase (AAP) is a better option for the removal of hydroxytyrosol (HT), the main phenol present in olive mill wastewaters.

This proposal focuses on cellwall feruloylation and our long term goal is to identify and isolate novel genes controlling feruloylation and to characterize the phenotype of mutants in this pathway, with a spotlight on cellwall properties.

The adhesion of plant cells is vital for support and protection of the plant body and is maintained by a variety of molecular associations between cellwall components. In some specialized cases though, plant cells are programmed to detach and root cap-derived border cells are examples of this....... Border cells (in some species known as border-like cells) provide an expendable barrier between roots and the environment. Their maturation and release is an important but poorly characterized cell separation event. To gain a deeper insight into the complex cellular dynamics underlying this process, we...... undertook a systematic, detailed analysis of pea (Pisum sativum) root tip cellwalls. Our study included immuno-carbohydrate microarray profiling, monosaccharide composition determination, Fourier-transformed infrared microspectroscopy (FT-IR), quantitative RT-PCR of cellwall biosynthetic genes, analysis...

This proposal is MBL's portion of NASA's Johnson Space Center's Astrobiology Center led by Principal Investigator, Dr. David McKay, entitled: 'Institute for the Study of Biomarkers in Astromaterials.' Dr. Norman Wainwright is the principal investigator at MBL and is responsible for developing methods to detect trace quantities of microbial cellwall chemicals using the enzyme amplification system of Limulus polyphemus and other related methods.

Four cellwall proteins of cotyledons of Prosopis chilensis seedlings were characterized by PAGE and Western analyses using a polyclonal antibody, generated against soybean seed coat extensin. These proteins had M(r)s of 180,000, 126,000, 107,000 and 63,000, as determined by SDS-PAGE. The proteins exhibited a fluorescent positive reaction with dansylhydrazine suggesting that they are glycoproteins; they did not show peroxidase activity. The cellwall proteins were also characterized by their amino acid composition and by their amino-terminal sequence. These analyses revealed that there are two groups of related cellwall proteins in the cotyledons. The first group comprises the proteins of M(r)s 180,000, 126,000, 107,000 which are rich in glutamic acid/glutamine and aspartic acid/asparagine and they have almost identical NH2-terminal sequences. The second group comprises the M(r) 63,000 protein which is rich in proline, glycine, valine and tyrosine, with an NH2-terminal sequence which was very similar to that of soybean proline-rich proteins.

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is an intracellular signaling pathway that regulates the cellular response to the accumulation of misfolded proteins in eukaryotes. Our group has demonstrated that cellwall stress activates UPR in yeast through signals transmitted by the cellwall integrity (CWI) mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade. The UPR is required to maintain cellwall integrity; mutants lacking a functional UPR have defects in cellwall biosynthesis and are hypersensitive ...

Cellwalls of grasses, including cereal crops and biofuel grasses, comprise the majority of plant biomass and intimately influence plant growth, development and physiology. However, the functions of many cellwall synthesis genes, and the relationships among and the functions of cellwall components remain obscure. To better understand the patterns of cellwall accumulation and identify genes that act in grass cellwall biosynthesis, we characterized 30 samples from aerial organs of rice (Oryza sativa cv. Kitaake) at 10 developmental time points, 3-100 d post-germination. Within these samples, we measured 15 cellwall chemical components, enzymatic digestibility and 18 cellwall polysaccharide epitopes/ligands. We also used quantitative reverse transcription-PCR to measure expression of 50 glycosyltransferases, 15 acyltransferases and eight phenylpropanoid genes, many of which had previously been identified as being highly expressed in rice. Most cellwall components vary significantly during development, and correlations among them support current understanding of cellwalls. We identified 92 significant correlations between cellwall components and gene expression and establish nine strong hypotheses for genes that synthesize xylans, mixed linkage glucan and pectin components. This work provides an extensive analysis of cellwall composition throughout rice development, identifies genes likely to synthesize grass cellwalls, and provides a framework for development of genetically improved grasses for use in lignocellulosic biofuel production and agriculture.

The yeast cellwall is an extracellular structure that is dependent on secretory and membrane proteins for its construction. We investigated the role of protein quality control mechanisms in cellwall integrity and found that the unfolded protein response (UPR) and, to a lesser extent, endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated degradation (ERAD) pathways are required for proper cellwall construction. Null mutation of IRE1, double mutation of ERAD components (hrd1Δ and ubc7Δ) and ire1Δ, or expres...

Helichrysum bracteatum is called an 'eternal flower' and has large, coloured, scarious bracts. These maintain their aesthetic value without wilting or discoloration for many years. There have been no research studies of cell death or cell morphology of the scarious bract, and hence the aim of this work was to elucidate these characteristics for the bract of H. bracteatum. DAPI (4'6-diamidino-2-phenylindol dihydrochloride) staining and fluorescence microscopy were used for observation of cell nuclei. Light microscopy (LM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and polarized light microscopy were used for observation of cells, including cellwall morphology. Cell death occurred at the bract tip during the early stage of flower development. The cellwall was the most prominent characteristic of H. bracteatum bract cells. Characteristic thickened secondary cellwalls on the inside of the primary cellwalls were observed in both epidermal and inner cells. In addition, the walls of all cells exhibited birefringence. Characteristic thickened secondary cellwalls have orientated cellulose microfibrils as well as general secondary cellwalls of the tracheary elements. For comparison, these characters were not observed in the petal and bract tissues of Chrysanthemum morifolium. Bracts at anthesis are composed of dead cells. Helichrysum bracteatum bracts have characteristic thickened secondary cellwalls that have not been observed in the parenchyma of any other flowers or leaves. The cells of the H. bracteatum bract differ from other tissues with secondary cellwalls, suggesting that they may be a new cell type.

Full Text Available Endometriosis is a frequent benign disorder. Malignancy arising in extraovarian endometriosis is a rare event. A 49-year-old woman is presented with a large painful abdominal wall mass. She underwent a myomectomy, 20 years before, for uterus leiomyoma. Computed tomography suggested that this was a desmoid tumor and she underwent surgery. Histological examination showed a clear cell adenocarcinoma associated with endometriosis foci. Pelvic ultrasound, computed tomography, and endometrial curettage did not show any malignancy or endometriosis in the uterus and ovaries. Adjuvant chemotherapy was recommended, but the patient was lost to follow up. Six months later, she returned with a recurrence of the abdominal wall mass. She was given chemotherapy and then she was reoperated.

According to the chemiosmotic polar diffusion hypothesis, auxin pulse velocity and basal secretion should increase with decreasing cellwall pH. Experiments were designed to test this prediction. Avena coleoptile sections were preincubated in either fusicoccin (FC), cycloheximide, pH 4.0, or pH 8.0 buffer and subsequently their polar transport capacities were determined. Relative to controls, FC enhanced auxin (IAA) uptake while CHI and pH 8.0 buffer reduced IAA uptake. Nevertheless, FC reduced IAA pulse velocity while cycloheximide increased velocity. Additional experiments showed that delivery of auxin to receivers is enhanced by increased receiver pH. This phenomenon was overcome by a pretreatment of the tissue with IAA. Our data suggest that while acidic wall pH values facilitate cellular IAA uptake, they do not enhance pulse velocity or basal secretion. These findings are inconsistent with the chemiosmotic hypothesis for auxin transport.

The overall goal of this research proposal was to characterize the molecular machinery responsible for polarized secretion of cellwall components in Arabidopsis thaliana. We have used the polarized expansion that occurs during root hair cell growth to identify membrane trafficking pathways involved in polarized secretion of cellwall components to the expanding tips of these cells, and we have recently shown that CSLD3 is preferentially targeted to the apical plasma membranes in root hair cells, where it plays essential roles during cellwall deposition in these cells. The specific aims of the project are designed to answer the following objective: Identification of the cellwall polysaccharide class that CSLD proteins synthesize.

The unicellular green alga, Penium margaritaceum, represents a novel and valuable model organism for elucidating cellwall dynamics in plants. This organism's cellwall contains several polymers that are highly similar to those found in the primary cellwalls of land plants. Penium is easily grown in laboratory culture and is effectively manipulated in various experimental protocols including microplate assays and correlative microscopy. Most importantly, Penium can be live labeled with cellwall-specific antibodies or other probes and returned to culture where specific cellwall developmental events can be monitored. Additionally, live cells can be rapidly cryo-fixed and cellwall surface microarchitecture can be observed with variable pressure scanning electron microscopy. Here, we describe the methodology for maintaining Penium for experimental cellwall enzyme studies.

Full Text Available The size, shape and stability of a plant depend on the flexibility and integrity of its cellwalls, which, at the same time, need to allow cell expansion for growth, while maintaining mechanical stability. Biomechanical studies largely vanished from the focus of plant science with the rapid progress of genetics and molecular biology since the mid-twentieth century. However, the development of more sensitive measurement tools renewed the interest in plant biomechanics in recent years, not only to understand the fundamental concepts of growth and morphogenesis, but also with regard to economically important areas in agriculture, forestry and the paper industry. Recent advances have clearly demonstrated that mechanical forces play a crucial role in cell and organ morphogenesis, which ultimately define plant morphology. In this article, we will briefly review the available methods to determine the mechanical properties of cellwalls, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM and microindentation assays, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. But we will focus on a novel methodological approach, called cellular force microscopy (CFM, and its automated successor, real-time CFM (RT-CFM.

More than 90% of the cellwall of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus comprises polysaccharides. Biosynthesis of the cellwall polysaccharides is under the control of three types of enzymes: transmembrane synthases, which are anchored to the plasma membrane and use nucleotide sugars as substrates, and cellwall-associated transglycosidases and glycosyl hydrolases, which are responsible for remodeling the de novo synthesized polysaccharides and establishing the three-dimensional structure of the cellwall. For years, the cellwall was considered an inert exoskeleton of the fungal cell. The cellwall is now recognized as a living organelle, since the composition and cellular localization of the different constitutive cellwall components (especially of the outer layers) vary when the fungus senses changes in the external environment. The cellwall plays a major role during infection. The recognition of the fungal cellwall by the host is essential in the initiation of the immune response. The interactions between the different pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) and cellwall pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) orientate the host response toward either fungal death or growth, which would then lead to disease development. Understanding the molecular determinants of the interplay between the cellwall and host immunity is fundamental to combatting Aspergillus diseases.

Delivering drugs to intracerebral regions can be accomplished by improving the capacity of transport through blood-brain barrier. Using sertraline as model drug for brain targeting, the current study aimed at modifying its liposomal vesicles with mannopyranoside. Box-Behnken design was employed to statistically optimize the ultrasound parameters, namely ultrasound amplitude, time, and temperature, for maximum mannosylation capacity, sertraline entrapment, and surface charge while minimizing vesicular size. Moreover, in vitro blood-brain barrier transport model was established to assess the transendothelial capacity of the optimized mannosylated vesicles. Results showed a dependence of vesicular size, mannosylation capacity, and sertraline entrapment on cavitation and bubble implosion events that were related to ultrasound power amplitude, temperature. However, short ultrasound duration was required to achieve >90% mannosylation with nanosized vesicles (ultrasound parameters of 65°C, 27%, and 59 seconds for ultrasound temperature, amplitude, and time were elucidated to produce 81.1%, 46.6 nm, and 77.6% sertraline entrapment, vesicular size, and mannosylation capacity, respectively. Moreover, the transendothelial ability was significantly increased by 2.5-fold by mannosylation through binding with glucose transporters. Hence, mannosylated liposomes processed by ultrasound could be a promising approach for manufacturing and scale-up of brain-targeting liposomes.

Plants mainly utilize inorganic forms of nitrogen (N), such as nitrate (NO 3 - ) and ammonium (NH 4 + ). However, the composition of the N source is important, because excess of NH 4 + promotes morphological disorders. Plants cultured on NH 4 + as the sole N source exhibit serious growth inhibition, commonly referred to as "ammonium toxicity syndrome." NH 4 + -mediated suppression of growth may be attributable to both repression of cell elongation and reduction of cell division. The precondition for cell enlargement is the expansion of the cellwall, which requires the loosening of the cellwall polymers. Therefore, to understand how NH 4 + nutrition may trigger growth retardation in plants, properties of their cellwalls were analyzed. We found that Arabidopsis thaliana using NH 4 + as the sole N source has smaller cells with relatively thicker cellwalls. Moreover, cellulose, which is the main load-bearing polysaccharide revealed a denser assembly of microfibrils. Consequently, the leaf blade tissue showed elevated tensile strength and indicated higher cellwall stiffness. These changes might be related to changes in polysaccharide and ion content of cellwalls. Further, NH 4 + toxicity was associated with altered activities of cellwall modifying proteins. The lower activity and/or expression of pectin hydrolyzing enzymes and expansins might limit cellwall expansion. Additionally, the higher activity of cellwall peroxidases can lead to higher cross-linking of cellwall polymers. Overall, the NH 4 + -mediated inhibition of growth is related to a more rigid cellwall structure, which limits expansion of cells. The changes in cellwall composition were also indicated by decreased expression of Feronia , a receptor-like kinase involved in the control of cellwall extension.

Full Text Available Cellwalls are important for the growth and development of all plants. They are also valuable resources for feed and fiber, and more recently as a potential feedstock for bioenergy production. Cellwall proteins comprise only a fraction of the cellwall, but play important roles in establishing the walls and in the chemical interactions (e.g. crosslinking of cellwall components. This crosslinking provides structure, but restricts digestibility of cellwall complex carbohydrates, limiting available energy in animal and bioenergy production systems. Manipulation of cellwall proteins could be a strategy to improve digestibility. An analysis of the cellwall proteome of apical alfalfa stems (less mature, more digestible and basal alfalfa stems (more mature, less digestible was conducted using a recently developed low-salt/density gradient method for the isolation of cellwalls. Walls were subsequently subjected to a modified extraction utilizing EGTA to remove pectins, followed by a LiCl extraction to isolate more tightly bound proteins. Recovered proteins were identified using shotgun proteomics. We identified 272 proteins in the alfalfa stem cellwall proteome, 153 of which had not previously been identified in cellwall proteomic analyses. Nearly 70% percent of the identified proteins were predicted to be secreted, as would be expected for most cellwall proteins, an improvement over previously published studies using traditional cellwall isolation methods. A comparison of our and several other cellwall proteomic studies indicates little overlap in identified proteins among them, which may be largely due to differences in the tissues used as well as differences in experimental approach.

Cellwalls of grasses, including cereal crops and biofuel grasses, comprise the majority of plant biomass and intimately influence plant growth, development and physiology. However, the functions of many cellwall synthesis genes, and the relationships among and the functions of cellwall...... components remain obscure. To better understand the patterns of cellwall accumulation and identify genes that act in grass cellwall biosynthesis, we characterized 30 samples from aerial organs of rice (Oryza sativa cv. Kitaake) at 10 developmental time points, 3-100 d post-germination. Within these samples......, we measured 15 cellwall chemical components, enzymatic digestibility and 18 cellwall polysaccharide epitopes/ligands. We also used quantitative reverse transcription-PCR to measure expression of 50 glycosyltransferases, 15 acyltransferases and eight phenylpropanoid genes, many of which had...

Galactose inhibits auxin-induced cell elongation in oat coleoptile segments. Cell elongation induced by exogenously applied auxin is controlled by factors such as auxin uptake, cellwall loosening, osmotic concentration of sap and hydraulic conductivity. However, galactose does not have any effect on these factors. The results discussed in this paper led to the conclusion that galactose does not affect cellwall loosening which controls rapid growth, but inhibits cellwall synthesis which is required to maintain long-term growth

Although the chemical composition of yeast cellwalls is known, the organization, assembly, and interactions of the various macromolecules remain poorly understood. Here, we used in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) in three different modes to probe the ultrastructure, cellwall elasticity and polymer properties of two brewing yeast strains, i.e. Saccharomyces carlsbergensis and S. cerevisiae. Topographic images of the two strains revealed smooth and homogeneous cell surfaces, and the presence of circular bud scars on dividing cells. Nanomechanical measurements demonstrated that the cellwall elasticity of S. carlsbergensis is homogeneous. By contrast, the bud scar of S. cerevisiae was found to be stiffer than the cellwall, presumably due to the accumulation of chitin. Notably, single molecule force spectroscopy with lectin-modified tips revealed major differences in polysaccharide properties of the two strains. Polysaccharides were clearly more extended on S. cerevisiae, suggesting that not only oligosaccharides, but also polypeptide chains of the mannoproteins were stretched. Consistent with earlier cell surface analyses, these findings may explain the very different aggregation properties of the two organisms. This study demonstrates the power of using multiple complementary AFM modalities for probing the organization and interactions of the various macromolecules of microbial cellwalls

Our aim was to inhibit trypanothione reductase (TR) and P-gp efflux pump of Leishmania by the use of thiolated polymers. Thus, increasing the intracellular accumulation and therapeutic effectiveness of antimonial compounds. Mannosylated thiolated chitosan and mannosylated thiolated chitosan-polyethyleneimine graft were synthesized and characterized. Meglumine antimoniate-loaded nanoparticles were prepared and evaluated for TR and P-gp efflux pump inhibition, biocompatibility, macrophage uptake and antileishmanial potential. Thiomers inhibited TR with Ki 2.021. The macrophage uptake was 33.7- and 18.9-fold higher with mannosylated thiolated chitosan-polyethyleneimine graft and mannosylated thiolated chitosan nanoparticles, respectively, as compared with the glucantime. Moreover, the in vitro antileishmanial activity showed 14.41- and 7.4-fold improved IC 50 for M-TCS-g-PEI and M-TCS, respectively as compared with glucantime. These results encouraged the concept that TR and P-gp inhibition by the use of thiomers improves the therapeutic efficacy of antimonial drugs.

The wood cellwall features a tough and relatively rigid fiber reinforced composite structure. It acts as a pressure vessel, offering protection against mechanical stress. Cellulose microfibrils, hemicellulose and amorphous lignin are the three major components of wood. The structure of secondary cellwall could be imagined as the same as reinforced concrete, in which cellulose microfibrils acts as reinforcing steel bar and hemicellulose-lignin matrices act as the concrete. Therefore, the interface between cellulose and hemicellulose/lignin plays a significant role in determine the mechanical behavior of wood secondary cellwall. To this end, we present a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study attempting to quantify the strength of the interface between cellulose microfibrils and hemicellulose. Since hemicellulose binds with adjacent cellulose microfibrils in various patterns, the atomistic models of hemicellulose-cellulose composites with three typical binding modes, i.e. bridge, loop and random binding modes are constructed. The effect of the shape of hemicellulose chain on the strength of hemicellulose-cellulose composites under shear loadings is investigated. The contact area as well as hydrogen bonds between cellulose and hemicellulose, together with the covalent bonds in backbone of hemicellulose chain are found to be the controlling parameters which determine the strength of the interfaces in the composite system. For the bridge binding model, the effect of shear loading direction on the strength of the cellulose material is also studied. The obtained results suggest that the shear strength of wood-inspired engineering composites can be optimized through maximizing the formations of the contributing hydrogen bonds between cellulose and hemicellulose. (paper)

The wood cellwall features a tough and relatively rigid fiber reinforced composite structure. It acts as a pressure vessel, offering protection against mechanical stress. Cellulose microfibrils, hemicellulose and amorphous lignin are the three major components of wood. The structure of secondary cellwall could be imagined as the same as reinforced concrete, in which cellulose microfibrils acts as reinforcing steel bar and hemicellulose-lignin matrices act as the concrete. Therefore, the interface between cellulose and hemicellulose/lignin plays a significant role in determine the mechanical behavior of wood secondary cellwall. To this end, we present a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study attempting to quantify the strength of the interface between cellulose microfibrils and hemicellulose. Since hemicellulose binds with adjacent cellulose microfibrils in various patterns, the atomistic models of hemicellulose-cellulose composites with three typical binding modes, i.e. bridge, loop and random binding modes are constructed. The effect of the shape of hemicellulose chain on the strength of hemicellulose-cellulose composites under shear loadings is investigated. The contact area as well as hydrogen bonds between cellulose and hemicellulose, together with the covalent bonds in backbone of hemicellulose chain are found to be the controlling parameters which determine the strength of the interfaces in the composite system. For the bridge binding model, the effect of shear loading direction on the strength of the cellulose material is also studied. The obtained results suggest that the shear strength of wood-inspired engineering composites can be optimized through maximizing the formations of the contributing hydrogen bonds between cellulose and hemicellulose.

The cadherin (cdh) superfamily of adhesion molecules carry O-linked mannose (O-Man) glycans at highly conserved sites localized to specific β-strands of their extracellular cdh (EC) domains. These O-Man glycans do not appear to be elongated like O-Man glycans found on α-dystroglycan (α-DG), and we recently demonstrated that initiation of cdh/protocadherin (pcdh) O-Man glycosylation is not dependent on the evolutionary conserved POMT1/POMT2 enzymes that initiate O-Man glycosylation on α-DG. Here, we used a CRISPR/Cas9 genetic dissection strategy combined with sensitive and quantitative O-Man glycoproteomics to identify a homologous family of four putative protein O-mannosyltransferases encoded by the TMTC1-4 genes, which were found to be imperative for cdh and pcdh O-Man glycosylation. KO of all four TMTC genes in HEK293 cells resulted in specific loss of cdh and pcdh O-Man glycosylation, whereas combined KO of TMTC1 and TMTC3 resulted in selective loss of O-Man glycans on specific β-strands of EC domains, suggesting that each isoenzyme serves a different function. In addition, O-Man glycosylation of IPT/TIG domains of plexins and hepatocyte growth factor receptor was not affected in TMTC KO cells, suggesting the existence of yet another O-Man glycosylation machinery. Our study demonstrates that regulation of O-mannosylation in higher eukaryotes is more complex than envisioned, and the discovery of the functions of TMTCs provide insight into cobblestone lissencephaly caused by deficiency in TMTC3.

Lignin detection and determination in herbaceous tissue requires selective, specific assays which are not currently available. A radioimmunoassay (RIA) was developed to study lignin metabolism in these tissues. A β-aryl ether lignin model compound was synthesized, linked to keyhole limpet hemocyanin using a water-soluble carbodiimide, and injected into rabbits. The highest titer of the antiserum obtained was 34 ηg/mL of model derivatized BSA. An in vitro system was developed to characterize the RIA. The model compound was linked to amino activated polyacrylamide beads to mimic lignin in the cellwalls. 125 I Radiolabelled protein A was used to detect IgG antibody binding. The RIA was shown in the in vitro system to exhibit saturable binding. The amount of antibody bound decreased when the serum was diluted. Immunoelectrophoresis and competitive binding experiments confirmed that both aromatic rings of the lignin model compound had been antigenic. Chlorogenic acid, a phenolic known to be present in plant cells, did not compete for antibody binding. The RIA was used to measure lignin in milled plant samples and barley seedlings. Antiserum binding to wheat cellwalls and stressed barley segments was higher than preimmune serum binding. Antibody binding to stressed barley tissue decreased following NaClO 2 delignification. The RIA was found to be less sensitive than expected, so several avenues for improving the method are discussed

Full Text Available Mass spectrometry is a selective and powerful technique to obtain identification and structural information on compounds present in complex mixtures. Since it requires only small sample amount it is an excellent tool for researchers interested in detecting changes in composition of complex carbohydrates of plants. This mini-review gives an overview of common mass spectrometry techniques applied to the analysis of plant cellwall carbohydrates. It presents examples in which mass spectrometry has been used to elucidate the structure of oligosaccharides derived from hemicelluloses and pectins and illustrates how information on sequence, linkages, branching and modifications are obtained from characteristic fragmentation patterns.

Cork, the outer bark of Quercus suber, shows a unique compositional structure, a set of remarkable properties, including high recalcitrance. Cork colonisation by Ascomycota remains largely overlooked. Herein, Aspergillus nidulans secretome on cork was analysed (2DE). Proteomic data were further complemented by microscopic (SEM) and spectroscopic (ATR-FTIR) evaluation of the colonised substrate and by targeted analysis of lignin degradation compounds (UPLC-HRMS). Data showed that the fungus formed an intricate network of hyphae around the cork cellwalls, which enabled polysaccharides and lignin superficial degradation, but probably not of suberin. The degradation of polysaccharides was suggested by the identification of few polysaccharide degrading enzymes (β-glucosidases and endo-1,5-α-l-arabinosidase). Lignin degradation, which likely evolved throughout a Fenton-like mechanism relying on the activity of alcohol oxidases, was supported by the identification of small aromatic compounds (e.g. cinnamic acid and veratrylaldehyde) and of several putative high molecular weight lignin degradation products. In addition, cork recalcitrance was corroborated by the identification of several protein species which are associated with autolysis. Finally, stringent comparative proteomics revealed that A. nidulans colonisation of cork and wood share a common set of enzymatic mechanisms. However the higher polysaccharide accessibility in cork might explain the increase of β-glucosidase in cork secretome. Cork degradation by fungi remains largely overlook. Herein we aimed at understanding how A. nidulans colonise cork cellwalls and how this relates to wood colonisation. To address this, the protein species consistently present in the secretome were analysed, as well as major alterations occurring in the substrate, including lignin degradation compounds being released. The obtained data demonstrate that this fungus has superficially attacked the cork cellwalls apparently by

Cellwalls are a defining feature of plants and have numerous crucial roles in growth and development. They are also the largest source of terrestrial biomass and have many important industrial applications - ranging from bulk products to functional food ingredients. There is considerable interest......¿4)-linked ß-D-Glcp are joined by occasional (1¿3)-linkages. This mixed linkage glucan (MLG) has been the subject of extensive research because of the economic importance of several Poales species including rice, barley and wheat and because MLG has proven health benefits. The recent discovery of MLG...

Cellulose and the other polysaccharides present in forage cellwalls can be completely degraded by the rumen microflora but only when these polysaccharides have been isolated from the wall and all matrix structures eliminated. Understanding how cellwall component interactions limit microbial degrad...

Detailed structural studies on the plant cellwall have traditionally been difficult. NMR is one of the preeminent structural tools, but obtaining high-resolution solution-state spectra has typically required fractionation and isolation of components of interest. With recent methods for dissolution of, admittedly, finely divided plant cellwall material, the wall can...

Antioxidant systems of maize root cellwalls grown on different nitrogen sources were evaluated. Plants were grown on a medium containing only NO3- or the mixture of NO3-+NH4+, in a 2:1 ratio. Eleven-day old plants, two days after the initiation of lateral roots, were used for the experiments. Cellwalls were isolated from lateral roots and primary root segments, 2-7 cm from tip to base, representing zones of intense or decreased growth rates, respectively. Protein content and the activity of enzymes peroxidase, malate dehydrogenase and ascorbate oxidase ionically or covalently bound to the walls, as well as cellwall phenolic content and antioxidant capacity, were determined. Cellwalls of plants grown on mixed N possess more developed enzymatic antioxidant systems and lower non-enzymatic antioxidant defenses than cellwalls grown on NO3-. Irrespective of N treatment, the activities of all studied enzymes and protein content were higher in cellwalls of lateral compared to primary roots. Phenolic content of cellwalls isolated from lateral roots was higher in NO3--grown than in mixed N grown plants. No significant differences could be observed in the isozyme patterns of cellwall peroxidases isolated from plants grown on different nutrient solution. Our results indicate that different N treatments modify the antioxidant systems of root cellwalls. Treatment with NO3- resulted in an increase of constitutive phenolic content, while the combination of NO3-+NH4+ elevated the redox enzyme activities in root cellwalls.

Antioxidant systems of maize root cellwalls grown on different nitrogen sources were evaluated. Plants were grown on a medium containing only NO3- or the mixture of NO3-+NH4+, in a 2:1 ratio. Eleven-day old plants, two days after the initiation of lateral roots, were used for the experiments. Cellwalls were isolated from lateral roots and primary root segments, 2-7 cm from tip to base, representing zones of intense or decreased growth rates, respectively. Protein content and the activity of enzymes peroxidase, malate dehydrogenase and ascorbate oxidase ionically or covalently bound to the walls, as well as cellwall phenolic content and antioxidant capacity, were determined. Cellwalls of plants grown on mixed N possess more developed enzymatic antioxidant systems and lower non-enzymatic antioxidant defenses than cellwalls grown on NO3-. Irrespective of N treatment, the activities of all studied enzymes and protein content were higher in cellwalls of lateral compared to primary roots. Phenolic content of cellwalls isolated from lateral roots was higher in NO3--grown than in mixed N grown plants. No significant differences could be observed in the isozyme patterns of cellwall peroxidases isolated from plants grown on different nutrient solution. Our results indicate that different N treatments modify the antioxidant systems of root cellwalls. Treatment with NO3- resulted in an increase of constitutive phenolic content, while the combination of NO3-+NH4+ elevated the redox enzyme activities in root cellwalls.

The authors have investigated the pattern of wall deposition and maturation and correlated it with cell expansion and cellulose biosynthesis. The herbicide 2,6-dichlorobenzonitrile (DCB) was found to be a potent inhibitor of cellulose synthesis, but not of cell expansion in Nitella internodal cells. Although cellulose synthesis is inhibited during DCB treatment, matrix substances continue to be synthesized and deposited. The inhibition of cellulose microfibril deposition can be demonstrated by various techniques. These results demonstrate that matrix deposition is by apposition, not by intussusception, and that the previously deposited wall moves progressively outward while stretching and thinning as a result of cell expansion

To identify cellwall biosynthetic genes in filamentous fungi and thus potential targets for the discovery of new antifungals, we developed a novel screening method for cellwall mutants. It is based on our earlier observation that the Aspergillus niger agsA gene, which encodes a putative

To identify cellwall biosynthetic genes in filamentous fungi and thus potential targets for the discovery of new antifungals, we developed a novel screening method for cellwall mutants. It is based on our earlier observation that the Aspergillus niger agsA gene, which encodes a putative a-glucan

The binding of 18 F to isolated cell membranes and cellwalls of Streptococcus mutans GS-5 or other bacteria was assayed. The attachment of 18 F to these cell envelopes proceeded slowly and reached equilibrium within 60 min. 18 F binding was stimulated by Ca 2+ (1 mM). The binding of 18 F to cellular components was dependent upon the pH, as well as the amount of 18 F and dose of the binder employed. The binding of 18 F by cellwalls prepared from fluoride-sensitive and fluoride-resistant cells of S. salivarius and S. mutans did not differ significantly. The pretreatment of cellwalls or cell membranes for 60 min at 30 degrees C with 1 mg of RNase, DNase, or trypsin per ml did not influence the binding of 18 F by the walls and membranes of S. mutans GS-5. However, prior exposure of cell membranes to sodium dodecyl sulfate caused a significant reduction in the number of 18 F atoms bound by the membranes. In saturated assay systems, cell membranes of S. mutans GS-5 bound 10(15) to 10(16) atoms of 18 F per mg (dry weight), whereas cellwalls from S. mutans GS-5, FA-1, and HS-6 or Actinomyces viscosus T14V and T14AV bound 10(12) to 10(13) atoms of 18 F per mg (dry weight). 18 F in this quantity (10(12) to 10(13) atoms) cannot be detected with the fluoride electrode. The data provide, for the first time, a demonstration of 18 F binding by cell membranes and walls of oral flora

organization of the polymeric networks of the cellwall around the protoplast also contributes to the direction of growth, the shape of the cell, and the proper positioning of the cell in a tissue. In essence, plant cell expansion represents the foundation of development. Most studies of plant cell expansion...... have focused primarily upon late divergent multicellular land plants and specialized cell types (e.g., pollen tubes, root hairs). Here, we describe a unicellular green alga, Penium margaritaceum (Penium), which can serve as a valuable model organism for understanding cell expansion and the underlying......The growth of a plant cell encompasses a complex set of subcellular components interacting in a highly coordinated fashion. Ultimately, these activities create specific cellwall structural domains that regulate the prime force of expansion, internally generated turgor pressure. The precise...

Mannosylation is a method commonly used to deliver nanomaterials to specific organs and tissues via cellular macrophage uptake. In this work, for the first time, we proposed a method that involves the binding of d-mannose to ethylenediamine to form mannosylated ethylenediamine, which is then coupled to oxidized and purified multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The advantage of this approach is that mannosylated ethylenediamine precipitates in methanol, which greatly facilitates the separation of this product in the synthesis process. Carbon nanotubes were oxidized using concentrated H_2SO_4 and HNO_3 by conventional reflux method. However, during this oxidation process, carbon nanotubes generated carboxylated carbonaceous fragments (oxidation debris). These by-products were removed from the oxidized carbon nanotubes to ensure that the functionalization would occur only on the carbon nanotube surface. The coupling of mannosylated ethylenediamine to debris-free carbon nanotubes was accomplished using n-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-n-ethylcarbodiimide and n-hydroxysuccinimide. Deconvoluted N1s spectra obtained from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy gave binding energies of 399.8 and 401.7 eV, which we attributed to the amide and amine groups, respectively, of carbon nanotubes functionalized with mannosylated ethylenediamine. Deconvoluted O1s spectra showed a binding energy of 532.4 eV, which we suggest is caused by an overlap in the binding energies of the aliphatic CO groups of d-mannose and the O=C group of the amide bond. The functionalization degree was approximately 3.4 %, according to the thermogravimetric analysis. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that an extended carbon nanotube morphology was preserved following the oxidation, purification, and functionalization steps.

Mannosylation is a method commonly used to deliver nanomaterials to specific organs and tissues via cellular macrophage uptake. In this work, for the first time, we proposed a method that involves the binding of d-mannose to ethylenediamine to form mannosylated ethylenediamine, which is then coupled to oxidized and purified multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The advantage of this approach is that mannosylated ethylenediamine precipitates in methanol, which greatly facilitates the separation of this product in the synthesis process. Carbon nanotubes were oxidized using concentrated H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} and HNO{sub 3} by conventional reflux method. However, during this oxidation process, carbon nanotubes generated carboxylated carbonaceous fragments (oxidation debris). These by-products were removed from the oxidized carbon nanotubes to ensure that the functionalization would occur only on the carbon nanotube surface. The coupling of mannosylated ethylenediamine to debris-free carbon nanotubes was accomplished using n-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-n-ethylcarbodiimide and n-hydroxysuccinimide. Deconvoluted N1s spectra obtained from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy gave binding energies of 399.8 and 401.7 eV, which we attributed to the amide and amine groups, respectively, of carbon nanotubes functionalized with mannosylated ethylenediamine. Deconvoluted O1s spectra showed a binding energy of 532.4 eV, which we suggest is caused by an overlap in the binding energies of the aliphatic CO groups of d-mannose and the O=C group of the amide bond. The functionalization degree was approximately 3.4 %, according to the thermogravimetric analysis. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that an extended carbon nanotube morphology was preserved following the oxidation, purification, and functionalization steps.

During the growth and development of land plants, some specialized cells, such as tracheary elements, undergo secondary cellwall thickening. Secondary cellwalls contain additional lignin, compared with primary cellwalls, thus providing mechanical strength and potentially improving defenses against pathogens. However, the molecular mechanisms that initiate wall thickening are unknown. In this study, we identified an Arabidopsis thaliana leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase, encoded by AtVRLK1 (Vascular-Related RLK 1), that is specifically expressed in cells undergoing secondary cellwall thickening. Suppression of AtVRLK1expression resulted in a range of phenotypes that included retarded early elongation of the inflorescence stem, shorter fibers, slower root growth, and shorter flower filaments. In contrast, upregulation of AtVRLK1 led to longer fiber cells, reduced secondary cellwall thickening in fiber and vessel cells, and defects in anther dehiscence. Molecular and cellular analyses showed that downregulation of AtVRLK1 promoted secondary cellwall thickening and upregulation of AtVRLK1 enhanced cell elongation and inhibited secondary cellwall thickening. We propose that AtVRLK1 functions as a signaling component in coordinating cell elongation and cellwall thickening during growth and development. {copyright, serif} 2018 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.

The plant secondary cellwall is a highly ordered structure composed of various polysaccharides, phenolic components and proteins. Its coordinated regulation of a number of complex metabolic pathways and assembly has not been resolved. To understand the molecular mechanisms that regulate secondary cellwall synthesis, we isolated a novel rice mutant, cellwall architecture1 (cwa1), that exhibits an irregular thickening pattern in the secondary cellwall of sclerenchyma, as well as culm brittleness and reduced cellulose content in mature internodes. Light and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the cwa1 mutant plant has regions of local aggregation in the secondary cellwalls of the cortical fibers in its internodes, showing uneven thickness. Ultraviolet microscopic observation indicated that localization of cellwall phenolic components was perturbed and that these components abundantly deposited at the aggregated cellwall regions in sclerenchyma. Therefore, regulation of deposition and assembly of secondary cellwall materials, i.e. phenolic components, appear to be disturbed by mutation of the cwa1 gene. Genetic analysis showed that cwa1 is allelic to brittle culm1 (bc1), which encodes the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored COBRA-like protein specifically in plants. BC1 is known as a regulator that controls the culm mechanical strength and cellulose content in the secondary cellwalls of sclerenchyma, but the precise function of BC1 has not been resolved. Our results suggest that CWA1/BC1 has an essential role in assembling cellwall constituents at their appropriate sites, thereby enabling synthesis of solid and flexible internodes in rice.

Full Text Available Ecm33 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI-anchored protein in the human pathogen Candida albicans. This protein is known to be involved in fungal cellwall integrity and is also critical for normal virulence in the mouse model of hematogenously disseminated candidiasis, but its function remains unknown. In this work, several phenotypic analyses of the C. albicans ecm33/ecm33 mutant (RML2U were performed. We observed that RML2U displays the inability of protoplast to regenerate the cellwall, activation of the cellwall integrity pathway, hypersensitivity to temperature, osmotic and oxidative stresses and a shortened chronological lifespan. During the exponential and stationary culture phases, nuclear and actin staining revealed the possible arrest of the cell cycle in RML2U cells. Interestingly, a veil growth, never previously described in C. albicans, was serendipitously observed under static stationary cells. The cells that formed this structure were also observed in cornmeal liquid cultures. These cells are giant, round cells, without DNA, and contain large vacuoles, similar to autophagic cells observed in other fungi. Furthermore, RML2U was phagocytozed more than the wild-type strain by macrophages at earlier time points, but the damage caused to the mouse cells was less than with the wild-type strain. Additionally, the percentage of RML2U apoptotic cells after interaction with macrophages was fewer than in the wild-type strain.

Fungal cells are surrounded by a tight cellwall to protect them from harmful environmental conditions and to resist lysis. The synthesis and assembly determine the shape, structure, and integrity of the cellwall during the process of mycelial growth and development. High temperature is an important abiotic stress, which affects the synthesis and assembly of cellwalls. In the present study, the chitin and β-1,3-glucan concentrations in the cellwall of Pleurotus ostreatus mycelia were changed after high-temperature treatment. Significantly higher chitin and β-1,3-glucan concentrations were detected at 36 °C than those incubated at 28 °C. With the increased temperature, many aberrant chitin deposition patches occurred, and the distribution of chitin in the cellwall was uneven. Moreover, high temperature disrupts the cellwall integrity, and P. ostreatus mycelia became hypersensitive to cellwall-perturbing agents at 36 °C. The cellwall structure tended to shrink or distorted after high temperature. The cellwalls were observed to be thicker and looser by using transmission electron microscopy. High temperature can decrease the mannose content in the cellwall and increase the relative cellwall porosity. According to infrared absorption spectrum, high temperature broke or decreased the glycosidic linkages. Finally, P. ostreatus mycelial cellwall was easily degraded by lysing enzymes after high-temperature treatment. In other words, the cellwall destruction caused by high temperature may be a breakthrough for P. ostreatus to be easily infected by Trichoderma.

This study investigates the influence of microstructure on the strength properties of individual cellwalls of closed-cell stabilized aluminium foams (SAFs). Optical microscopy (OM), micro-computed X-ray tomography (µ-CT), electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analyses were conducted to examine the microstructural properties of SAF cellwalls. Novel micro-tensile tests were performed to investigate the strength properties of individual cellwalls. Microstructural analysis of the SAF cellwalls revealed that the material consists of eutectic Al-Si and dendritic a-Al with an inhomogeneous distribution of intermetallic particles and micro-pores (void defects). These microstructural features affected the micro-mechanism fracture behaviour and tensile strength of the specimens. Laser-based extensometer and digital image correlation (DIC) analyses were employed to observe the strain fields of individual tensile specimens. The tensile failure mode of these materials has been evaluated using microstructural analysis of post-mortem specimens, revealing a brittle cleavage fracture of the cellwall materials. The micro-porosities and intermetallic particles reduced the strength under tensile loading, limiting the elongation to fracture on average to ~3.2% and an average ultimate tensile strength to ~192 MPa. Finally, interactions between crack propagation and obstructing intermetallic compounds during the tensile deformation have been elucidated.

Perturbation of cellwall synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, either by mutations in cellwall synthesis-related genes or by adding compounds that interfere with normal cellwall assembly, triggers a compensatory response to ensure cellwall integrity. This response includes an increase in chitin

Rice is a model plant widely used for basic and applied research programs. Plant cellwall proteins play key roles in a broad range of biological processes. However, presently, knowledge on the rice cellwall proteome is rudimentary in nature. In the present study, the tightly-bound cellwall proteome of rice callus cultured cells using sequential extraction protocols was developed using mass spectrometry and bioinformatics methods, leading to the identification of 1568 candidate proteins. Ba...

Full text: Paraquat is a widely used, non-selective, light activated contact herbicide acting as a photosystem electron acceptor. Resistance to paraquat in weed species has occurred in Australia and world-wide following extensive use of this herbicide. The mechanism of resistance to paraquat in 'Hordeum glaucum' is correlated with reduced herbicide translocation and may be due to sequestration of herbicide away from its site of action by either binding to cellwalls or other means. We measured paraquat binding to a cellwall fraction in resistant and susceptible biotypes of H. glaucum to determine whether differences in binding of paraquat to cellwalls could explain herbicide resistance. The cellwall fraction was isolated from leaves of resistant and susceptible biotypes and incubated with 14 C-labelled paraquat. Of the total paraquat - absorbed by a cellwall preparation, about 80% remains strongly bind to the cellwall and doesn't readily exchange with solution in the absence of divalent cations. Divalent cations (Ca 2+ ,putrescine and paraquat) can competitively exchange for paraquat tightly bound to the cellwall. From kinetic experiments it seems that there are two types of binding sites in the cellwall with different affinities for paraquat. No significant differences between cellwall, characteristics of resistant and susceptible biotypes of H. glaucum have been found in any of our experiments. Therefore, increased binding of paraquat to the cellwall appears not to be a mechanism for exclusion of paraquat in resistant biotype

Yeast have long been known to possess a cellwall integrity (CWI) system, and recently an analogous system has been described for the primary walls of plants (PCWI) that leads to changes in plant growth and cellwall composition. A similar system has been proposed to exist for secondary cellwalls (SCWI). However, there is little data to support this. Here, we analyzed the stem transcriptome of a set of cellwall biosynthetic mutants in order to investigate whether cellwall damage, in this case caused by aberrant xylan synthesis, activates a signaling cascade or changes in cellwall synthesis gene expression. Our data revealed remarkably few changes to the transcriptome. We hypothesize that this is because cells undergoing secondary cellwall thickening have entered a committed programme leading to cell death, and therefore a SCWI system would have limited impact. The absence of transcriptomic responses to secondary cellwall alterations may facilitate engineering of the secondary cellwall of plants.

Plant parasitic cyst nematodes (genera Heterodera and Globodera) are serious pests for many crops. They enter the host roots as migratory second stage juveniles (J2) and migrate intracellularly toward the vascular cylinder using their stylet and a set of cellwall degrading enzymes produced in the pharyngeal glands. They select an initial syncytial cell (ISC) within the vascular cylinder or inner cortex layers to induce the formation of a multicellular feeding site called a syncytium, which is the only source of nutrients for the parasite during its entire life. A syncytium can consist of more than hundred cells whose protoplasts are fused together through local cellwall dissolutions. While the nematode produces a cocktail of cellwall degrading and modifying enzymes during migration through the root, the cellwall degradations occurring during syncytium development are due to the plants own cellwall modifying and degrading proteins. The outer syncytial cellwall thickens to withstand the increasing osmotic pressure inside the syncytium. Furthermore, pronounced cellwall ingrowths can be formed on the outer syncytial wall at the interface with xylem vessels. They increase the surface of the symplast-apoplast interface, thus enhancing nutrient uptake into the syncytium. Processes of cellwall degradation, synthesis and modification in the syncytium are facilitated by a variety of plant proteins and enzymes including expansins, glucanases, pectate lyases and cellulose synthases, which are produced inside the syncytium or in cells surrounding the syncytium.

Full Text Available Plant parasitic cyst nematodes (genera Heterodera and Globodera are serious pests for many crops. They enter the host roots as migratory second stage juveniles (J2 and migrate intracellularly towards the vascular cylinder using their stylet and a set of cellwall degrading enzymes produced in the pharyngeal glands. They select an initial syncytial cell (ISC within the vascular cylinder or inner cortex layers to induce the formation of a multicellular feeding site called a syncytium, which is the only source of nutrients for the parasite during its entire life. A syncytium can consist of more than hundred cells whose protoplasts are fused together through local cellwall dissolutions. While the nematode produces a cocktail of cellwall degrading and modifying enzymes during migration through the root, the cellwall degradations occurring during syncytium development are due to the plants own cellwall modifying and degrading proteins. The outer syncytial cellwall thickens to withstand the increasing osmotic pressure inside the syncytium. Furthermore, pronounced cellwall ingrowths can be formed on the outer syncytial wall at the interface with xylem vessels. They increase the surface of the symplast-apoplast interface, thus enhancing nutrient uptake into the syncytium. Processes of cellwall degradation, synthesis and modification in the syncytium are facilitated by a variety of plant proteins and enzymes including expansins, glucanases, pectate lyases and cellulose synthases, which are produced inside the syncytium or in cells surrounding the syncytium.

Abstract Immunofluorescence microscopy (IFM) and immunogold transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are the two main techniques commonly used to detect polysaccharides in plant cellwalls. Both are important in localizing cellwall polysaccharides, but both have major limitations, such as low resolution in IFM and restricted sample size for immunogold TEM. In this study, we have developed a robust technique that combines immunocytochemistry with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study cellwall polysaccharide architecture in xylem cells at high resolution over large areas of sample. Using multiple cellwall monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), this immunogold SEM technique reliably localized groups of hemicellulosic and pectic polysaccharides in the cellwalls of five different xylem structures (vessel elements, fibers, axial and ray parenchyma cells, and tyloses). This demonstrates its important advantages over the other two methods for studying cellwall polysaccharide composition and distribution in these structures. In addition, it can show the three-dimensional distribution of a polysaccharide group in the vessel lateral wall and the polysaccharide components in the cellwall of developing tyloses. This technique, therefore, should be valuable for understanding the cellwall polysaccharide composition, architecture and functions of diverse cell types. PMID:28398585

Growth of the opportunistic yeast pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans in a synthetic medium containing yeast nitrogen base and 1.0-3.0% glucose is accompanied by spontaneous acidification of the medium, with its pH decreasing from the initial 5.5 to around 2.5 in the stationary phase. During the transition from the late exponential to the stationary phase of growth, many cells died as a consequence of autolytic erosion of their cellwalls. Simultaneously, there was an increase in an ecto-glucanase active towards beta-1,3-glucan and having a pH optimum between pH 3.0 and 3.5. As a response to cellwall degradation, some cells developed an unusual survival strategy by forming 'secondary' cellwalls underneath the original ones. Electron microscopy revealed that the secondary cellwalls were thicker than the primary ones, exposing bundles of polysaccharide microfibrils only partially masked by an amorphous cellwall matrix on their surfaces. The cells bearing secondary cellwalls had a three to five times higher content of the alkali-insoluble cellwall polysaccharides glucan and chitin, and their chitin/glucan ratio was about twofold higher than in cells from the logarithmic phase of growth. The cell lysis and the formation of the secondary cellwalls could be suppressed by buffering the growth medium between pH 4.5 and 6.5.

A genome-wide inventory of proteins involved in cellwall synthesis and remodeling has been obtained by taking advantage of the recently released genome sequence of the ectomycorrhizal Tuber melanosporum black truffle. Genes that encode cellwall biosynthetic enzymes, enzymes involved in cellwall polysaccharide synthesis or modification, GPI-anchored proteins and other cellwall proteins were identified in the black truffle genome. As a second step, array data were validated and the symbiotic stage was chosen as the main focus. Quantitative RT-PCR experiments were performed on 29 selected genes to verify their expression during ectomycorrhizal formation. The results confirmed the array data, and this suggests that cellwall-related genes are required for morphogenetic transition from mycelium growth to the ectomycorrhizal branched hyphae. Labeling experiments were also performed on T. melanosporum mycelium and ectomycorrhizae to localize cellwall components.

The application of rectangular electric pulses, with 0.1-2 ms duration and field intensity of 2.5-4.5 kV/cm, to yeast suspension mediates liberation of cytoplasmic proteins without cell lysis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of pulsed electric field with similar parameters on cellwall porosity of different yeast species. We found that electrically treated cells become more susceptible to lyticase digestion. In dependence on the strain and the electrical conditions, cell lysis was obtained at 2-8 times lower enzyme concentration in comparison with control untreated cells. The increase of the maximal lysis rate was between two and nine times. Furthermore, when applied at low concentration (1 U/ml), the lyticase enhanced the rate of protein liberation from electropermeabilized cells without provoking cell lysis. Significant differences in the cell surface of control and electrically treated cells were revealed by scanning electron microscopy. Data presented in this study allow us to conclude that electric field pulses provoke not only plasma membrane permeabilization, but also changes in the cellwall structure, leading to increased wall porosity.

Native-state organization and distribution of cell-wall components in the secondary wall of woody tissue from P. mariana (Black Spruce) have been investigated using polarized Raman microspectroscopy. Evidence for orientation is detected through Raman intensity variations resulting from rotations of the exciting electric vector with respect to cell-wall geometry....

Throughout their life, plants typically remain in one location utilizing sunlight for the synthesis of carbohydrates, which serve as their sole source of energy as well as building blocks of a protective extracellular matrix, called the cellwall. During the course of evolution, plants have repeatedly adapted to their respective niche,which is reflected in the changes of their body plan and the specific design of cellwalls. Cellwalls not only changed throughout evolution but also are consta...

Full Text Available We have developed a novel 3-D, agent-based model of cell-wall digestion to improve our understanding of ruminal cell-wall digestion. It offers a capability to study cellwalls and their enzymatic modification, by providing a representation of cellulose microfibrils and non-cellulosic polysaccharides and by simulating their spatial and catalytic interactions with enzymes. One can vary cell-wall composition and the types and numbers of enzyme molecules, allowing the model to be applied to a range of systems where cellwalls are degraded and to the modification of cellwalls by endogenous enzymes. As a proof of principle, we have modelled the wall of a mesophyll cell from the leaf of perennial ryegrass and then simulated its enzymatic degradation. This is a primary, non-lignified cellwall and the model includes cellulose, hemicelluloses (glucuronoarabinoxylans, 1,3;1,4-β-glucans, and xyloglucans and pectin. These polymers are represented at the level of constituent monosaccharides, and assembled to form a 3-D, meso-scale representation of the molecular structure of the cellwall. The composition of the cellwall can be parameterised to represent different walls in different cell types and taxa. The model can contain arbitrary combinations of different enzymes. It simulates their random diffusion through the polymer networks taking collisions into account, allowing steric hindrance from cell-wall polymers to be modelled. Steric considerations are included when target bonds are encountered, and breakdown products resulting from enzymatic activity are predicted.

A recently described plant cellwall dissolution system has been modified to use perdeuterated solvents to allow direct in-NMR-tube dissolution and high-resolution solution-state NMR of the whole cellwall without derivatization. Finely ground cellwall material dissolves in a solvent system containing dimethylsulfoxide-d6 and 1-methylimidazole-d6 in a ratio of 4:1 (v/...

Seaweeds, also known as macroalgae, constitute a rich source of valuable biomolecules which have a potential industrial application in food and pharma products. The use of enzymes can optimize the extraction and separation of these molecules from the seaweed biomass, but most commercial enzymes...... are incapable of breaking the complex polysaccharides found in seaweed cellwalls. Therefore, new enzymes are needed for degradation of seaweed biomass. Bacteria that colonize the surfaces of seaweed secrete enzymes that allow them to degrade and utilize seaweed polysaccharides as energy. In addition, sea...... degradation. In addition, three carrageenases were characterised; one as a GH16 κ-carrageenase whereas the other two belong to a new GH16 subfamily of enzymes that degrade furcellaran (κ/β-carrageenan). From metagenome sequence data three putative GH107 fucanases were identified and characterized...

This program was devoted toward complete understanding of the polysaccharide structure and architecture of the primary cellwalls grasses and cereals, and the biosynthesis of the mixed-linkage beta-glucane, a cellulose interacting polymer that is synthesized uniquely by grass species and close relatives. With these studies as focal point, the support from DOE was instrumental in the development of new analytical means that enabled us to characterize carbohydrate structure, to reveal new features of cellwall dynamics during cell growth, and to apply these techniques in other model organisms. The support by DOE in these basic studies was acknowledged on numerous occasions in review articles covering current knowledge of cellwall structure, architecture, dynamics, biosynthesis, and in all genes related to cellwall biogenesis.

Full Text Available Objective: To examine the total phenolic and protein contents, and the antioxidant activities of cellwall polysaccharide fractions of Stevia rebaudiana leaves. Methods: Three different polysaccharide-enriched fractions, namely FPE (extract with 50 mmol/ L ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid, FPK (extract with 0.05 mol/L KOH and FH (extract with 4 mol/L KOH were extracted from Stevia rebaudiana leaves. The antioxidant activity of these fractions was evaluated based on their ability to scavenge DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl free radical, to reduce ferric power, to chelate ferrous ion and to protect human DNA. Results: The results indicated that protein content was found to be higher in FPK polysaccharide enriched fraction (47.48 µg per mg of FPK. Furthermore, the phenolic compound analysis according to the Folin-Ciocalteu method was higher in FPK (17.71 µg ferulic acid. The DPPH maximal inhibition percentage of the three polysaccharide-enriched fractions at 400 µg/mL was 27.66%, 59.90% and 23.21% respectively for FPE, FPK and FH. All the polysaccharide fractions exhibited a ferric reducing power except the FH one. The three fractions also exhibited lipid peroxidation inhibition, and they completely reverted the DNA damage induced by H2O2/FeCl2. FPK showed the strongest scavenging activity against the DPPH radical, the best chelating ability and lipid peroxidation inhibition. Conclusions: Stevia cellwall polysaccharide fractions are potent protective agents against oxidative stress. The analysis revealed major differences in the antioxidant activity in the three polysaccharides fractions. However, the 0.05 mol/L KOH pectin fraction (FPK showed better antioxidant activity.

Strawberry (Fragaria × anannasa Duch.) is one of the most important soft fruit. Rapid loss of firmness occurs during the ripening process, resulting in a short shelf life and high economic losses. To get insight into the role of pectin matrix in the softening process, cellwalls from strawberry fruit at two developmental stages, unripe-green and ripe-red, were extracted and sequentially fractionated with different solvents to obtain fractions enriched in a specific component. The yield of cellwall material as well as the per fresh weight contents of the different fractions decreased in ripe fruit. The largest reduction was observed in the pectic fractions extracted with a chelating agent (trans-1,2- diaminocyclohexane-N,N,N'N'-tetraacetic acid, CDTA fraction) and those covalently bound to the wall (extracted with Na 2 CO 3 ). Uronic acid content of these two fractions also decreased significantly during ripening, but the amount of soluble pectins extracted with phenol:acetic acid:water (PAW) and water increased in ripe fruit. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy of the different fractions showed that the degree of esterification decreased in CDTA pectins but increased in soluble fractions at ripen stage. The chromatographic analysis of pectin fractions by gel filtration revealed that CDTA, water and, mainly PAW polyuronides were depolymerised in ripe fruit. By contrast, the size of Na 2 CO 3 pectins was not modified. The nanostructural characteristics of CDTA and Na 2 CO 3 pectins were analysed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Isolated pectic chains present in the CDTA fractions were significantly longer and more branched in samples from green fruit than those from red fruit. No differences in contour length were observed in Na 2 CO 3 strands between samples of both stages. However, the percentage of branched chains decreased from 19.7% in unripe samples to 3.4% in ripe fruit. The number of pectin aggregates was higher in green fruit samples of both

Throughout their life, plants typically remain in one location utilizing sunlight for the synthesis of carbohydrates, which serve as their sole source of energy as well as building blocks of a protective extracellular matrix, called the cellwall. During the course of evolution, plants have repeatedly adapted to their respective niche, which is reflected in the changes of their body plan and the specific design of cellwalls. Cellwalls not only changed throughout evolution but also are constantly remodelled and reconstructed during the development of an individual plant, and in response to environmental stress or pathogen attacks. Carbohydrate-rich cellwalls display complex designs, which together with the presence of phenolic polymers constitutes a barrier for microbes, fungi, and animals. Throughout evolution microbes have co-evolved strategies for efficient breakdown of cellwalls. Our current understanding of cellwalls and their evolutionary changes are limited as our knowledge is mainly derived from biochemical and genetic studies, complemented by a few targeted yet very informative imaging studies. Comprehensive plant cellwall models will aid in the re-design of plant cellwalls for the purpose of commercially viable lignocellulosic biofuel production as well as for the timber, textile, and paper industries. Such knowledge will also be of great interest in the context of agriculture and to plant biologists in general. It is expected that detailed plant cellwall models will require integrated correlative multimodal, multiscale imaging and modelling approaches, which are currently underway.

have previously shown that the expression of some resistance genes is abolished after treatment with thioridazine and oxacillin. To further understand the mechanism underlying the reversal of resistance, we tested the expression of genes involved in antibiotic resistance and cellwall biosynthesis...... in response to thioridazine in combination with oxacillin. We observed that the oxacillin-induced expression of genes belonging to the VraSR regulon is reduced by the addition of thioridazine. The exclusion of such key factors involved in cellwall biosynthesis will most likely lead to a weakened cellwall...... reversal of resistance by thioridazine relies on decreased expression of specific genes involved in cellwall biosynthesis....

Throughout their life, plants typically remain in one location utilizing sunlight for the synthesis of carbohydrates, which serve as their sole source of energy as well as building blocks of a protective extracellular matrix, called the cellwall. During the course of evolution, plants have repeatedly adapted to their respective niche,which is reflected in the changes of their body plan and the specific design of cellwalls. Cellwalls not only changed throughout evolution but also are constantly remodelled and reconstructed during the development of an individual plant, and in response to environmental stress or pathogen attacks. Carbohydrate-rich cellwalls display complex designs, which together with the presence of phenolic polymers constitutes a barrier for microbes, fungi, and animals. Throughout evolution microbes have co-evolved strategies for efficient breakdown of cellwalls. Our current understanding of cellwalls and their evolutionary changes are limited as our knowledge is mainly derived from biochemical and genetic studies, complemented by a few targeted yet very informative imaging studies. Comprehensive plant cellwall models will aid in the re-design of plant cellwalls for the purpose of commercially viable lignocellulosic biofuel production as well as for the timber, textile, and paper industries. Such knowledge will also be of great interest in the context of agriculture and to plant biologists in general. It is expected that detailed plant cellwall models will require integrated correlative multimodal, multiscale imaging and modelling approaches, which are currently underway.

Background and Aims Helichrysum bracteatum is called an ‘eternal flower’ and has large, coloured, scarious bracts. These maintain their aesthetic value without wilting or discoloration for many years. There have been no research studies of cell death or cell morphology of the scarious bract, and hence the aim of this work was to elucidate these characteristics for the bract of H. bracteatum. Methods DAPI (4'6-diamidino-2-phenylindol dihydrochloride) staining and fluorescence microscopy were used for observation of cell nuclei. Light microscopy (LM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and polarized light microscopy were used for observation of cells, including cellwall morphology. Key Results Cell death occurred at the bract tip during the early stage of flower development. The cellwall was the most prominent characteristic of H. bracteatum bract cells. Characteristic thickened secondary cellwalls on the inside of the primary cellwalls were observed in both epidermal and inner cells. In addition, the walls of all cells exhibited birefringence. Characteristic thickened secondary cellwalls have orientated cellulose microfibrils as well as general secondary cellwalls of the tracheary elements. For comparison, these characters were not observed in the petal and bract tissues of Chrysanthemum morifolium. Conclusions Bracts at anthesis are composed of dead cells. Helichrysum bracteatum bracts have characteristic thickened secondary cellwalls that have not been observed in the parenchyma of any other flowers or leaves. The cells of the H. bracteatum bract differ from other tissues with secondary cellwalls, suggesting that they may be a new cell type. PMID:18436550

Expansive growth of plant cells is controlled principally by processes that loosen the wall and enable it to expand irreversibly. The central role of wall relaxation for cell expansion is reviewed. The most common methods for assessing the extension properties of plant cellwalls ( wall extensibility') are described, categorized and assessed critically. What emerges are three fundamentally different approaches which test growing cells for their ability (a) to enlarge at different values of turgor, (b) to induce wall relaxation, and (c) to deform elastically or plastically in response to an applied tensile force. Analogous methods with isolated walls are similarly reviewed. The results of these different assays are related to the nature of plant cell growth and pertinent biophysical theory. I argue that the extensibilities' measured by these assays are fundamentally different from one another and that some are more pertinent to growth than others.

The duration of the S-phase of supporting cells and wallcells of rat fetuses aged 19 days was determined by the ''labelled mitosis'' method. The supporting cells are predecessors of the sertoli cells while the wallcells are predecessors of the boundary tissue and, possibly, of part of the peritubular Leydig cell system. The S-phase of the supporting cells was found to last 10.1 h while the S-phase of the wallcells lasted 9.2 h. The data were not in agreement with the data of other authors. (orig./MG) [de

The shaping of individual cells requires a tight coordination of cell mechanics and growth. However, it is unclear how information about the mechanical state of the wall is relayed to the molecular processes building it, thereby enabling the coordination of cellwall expansion and assembly during morphogenesis. Combining theoretical and experimental approaches, we show that a mechanical feedback coordinating cellwall assembly and expansion is essential to sustain mating projection growth in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Our theoretical results indicate that the mechanical feedback provided by the CellWall Integrity pathway, with cellwall stress sensors Wsc1 and Mid2 increasingly activating membrane-localized cellwall synthases Fks1/2 upon faster cellwall expansion, stabilizes mating projection growth without affecting cell shape. Experimental perturbation of the osmotic pressure and cellwall mechanics, as well as compromising the mechanical feedback through genetic deletion of the stress sensors, leads to cellular phenotypes that support the theoretical predictions. Our results indicate that while the existence of mechanical feedback is essential to stabilize mating projection growth, the shape and size of the cell are insensitive to the feedback. PMID:29346368

Full Text Available Studying protein diffusion informs us about how proteins interact with their environment. Work on protein diffusion over the last several decades has illustrated the complex nature of biological lipid bilayers. The plasma membrane contains an array of membrane-spanning proteins or proteins with peripheral membrane associations. Maintenance of plasma membrane microstructure can be via physical features that provide intrinsic ordering such as lipid microdomains, or from membrane-associated structures such as the cytoskeleton. Recent evidence indicates, that in the case of plant cells, the cellwall seems to be a major player in maintaining plasma membrane microstructure. This interconnection / interaction between cell-wall and plasma membrane proteins most likely plays an important role in signal transduction, cell growth, and cell physiological responses to the environment.

Studying protein diffusion informs us about how proteins interact with their environment. Work on protein diffusion over the last several decades has illustrated the complex nature of biological lipid bilayers. The plasma membrane contains an array of membrane-spanning proteins or proteins with peripheral membrane associations. Maintenance of plasma membrane microstructure can be via physical features that provide intrinsic ordering such as lipid microdomains, or from membrane-associated structures such as the cytoskeleton. Recent evidence indicates, that in the case of plant cells, the cellwall seems to be a major player in maintaining plasma membrane microstructure. This interconnection / interaction between cell-wall and plasma membrane proteins most likely plays an important role in signal transduction, cell growth, and cell physiological responses to the environment.

Mannosylations using the new conformationally restricted donor phenyl 2,3-di-O-benzyl-4,6-O-(di-tert-butylsilylene)-1-thio-α-D-mannopyranoside (6) have been found to be β-selective with a variety of activation conditions. The simplest activation conditions were NIS/TfOH, in which case it is propo......Mannosylations using the new conformationally restricted donor phenyl 2,3-di-O-benzyl-4,6-O-(di-tert-butylsilylene)-1-thio-α-D-mannopyranoside (6) have been found to be β-selective with a variety of activation conditions. The simplest activation conditions were NIS/TfOH, in which case...

Ecm33 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein in the human pathogen Candida albicans. This protein is known to be involved in fungal cellwall integrity (CWI) and is also critical for normal virulence in the mouse model of hematogenously disseminated candidiasis, but its function remains unknown. In this work, several phenotypic analyses of the C. albicans ecm33/ecm33 mutant (RML2U) were performed. We observed that RML2U displays the inability of protoplast to regenerate the cellwall, activation of the CWI pathway, hypersensitivity to temperature, osmotic and oxidative stresses and a shortened chronological lifespan. During the exponential and stationary culture phases, nuclear and actin staining revealed the possible arrest of the cell cycle in RML2U cells. Interestingly, a "veil growth," never previously described in C. albicans, was serendipitously observed under static stationary cells. The cells that formed this structure were also observed in cornmeal liquid cultures. These cells are giant, round cells, without DNA, and contain large vacuoles, similar to autophagic cells observed in other fungi. Furthermore, RML2U was phagocytozed more than the wild-type strain by macrophages at earlier time points, but the damage caused to the mouse cells was less than with the wild-type strain. Additionally, the percentage of RML2U apoptotic cells after interaction with macrophages was fewer than in the wild-type strain.

Ecm33 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein in the human pathogen Candida albicans. This protein is known to be involved in fungal cellwall integrity (CWI) and is also critical for normal virulence in the mouse model of hematogenously disseminated candidiasis, but its function remains unknown. In this work, several phenotypic analyses of the C. albicans ecm33/ecm33 mutant (RML2U) were performed. We observed that RML2U displays the inability of protoplast to regenerate the cellwall, activation of the CWI pathway, hypersensitivity to temperature, osmotic and oxidative stresses and a shortened chronological lifespan. During the exponential and stationary culture phases, nuclear and actin staining revealed the possible arrest of the cell cycle in RML2U cells. Interestingly, a “veil growth,” never previously described in C. albicans, was serendipitously observed under static stationary cells. The cells that formed this structure were also observed in cornmeal liquid cultures. These cells are giant, round cells, without DNA, and contain large vacuoles, similar to autophagic cells observed in other fungi. Furthermore, RML2U was phagocytozed more than the wild-type strain by macrophages at earlier time points, but the damage caused to the mouse cells was less than with the wild-type strain. Additionally, the percentage of RML2U apoptotic cells after interaction with macrophages was fewer than in the wild-type strain. PMID:26870022

markdownabstract__Abstract__ T cell lines (B13, B19) were isolated from the lymph nodes of Lewis rats 12 days after an arthritogenic injection of cellwall fragments of Eubacterium aerofaciens (ECW), a major resident of the human intestinal flora. These cellwall fragments consist of

Plant cellwalls contribute the majority of plant biomass that can be used to produce transportation fuels. However, the complexity and variability in composition and structure of cellwalls, particularly the presence of lignin, negatively impacts their deconstruction for bioenergy. Metabolic and genetic changes associated with secondary wall development in the biofuel crop switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum ) have yet to be reported. Our previous studies have established a cell suspension system for switchgrass, in which cellwall lignification can be induced by application of brassinolide (BL). We have now collected cellwall composition and microarray-based transcriptome profiles for BL-induced and non-induced suspension cultures to provide an overview of the dynamic changes in transcriptional reprogramming during BL-induced cellwall modification. From this analysis, we have identified changes in candidate genes involved in cellwall precursor synthesis, cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin formation and ester-linkage generation. We have also identified a large number of transcription factors with expression correlated with lignin biosynthesis genes, among which are candidates for control of syringyl (S) lignin accumulation. Together, this work provides an overview of the dynamic compositional changes during brassinosteroid-induced cellwall remodeling, and identifies candidate genes for future plant genetic engineering to overcome cellwall recalcitrance.

Cells of a Bacillus subtilis mutant deficient in both major autolytic enzyme activities were continuously labeled in either cellwall or DNA or both cellwall and DNA. After appropriate periods of chase in minimal as well as in rich medium, thin sections of cells were autoradiographed and examined by electron microscopy. The resolution of the method was adequate to distinguish labeled DNA units from cellwall units. The latter, which could be easily identified, were shown to segregate symmetrically, suggesting a zonal mode of new wall insertion. DNA units could also be clearly recognized despite a limited fragmentation; they segregated asymmetrically with respect to the nearest septum. Analysis of cells simultaneously labeled in cellwall and DNA provided clear visual evidence of their regular but asymmetrical cosegregation, confirming a previous report obtained by light microscope autoradiography. In addition to labeled wall units, electron microscopy of thin sections of aligned cells has revealed fibrillar networks of wall material which are frequently associated with the cell surface. Most likely, these structures correspond to wall sloughed off by the turnover mechanism but not yet degraded to filterable or acid-soluble components

The integrity and morphology of bacteria is sustained by the cellwall, the target of the main microbial inactivation processes. One promising approach to inactivation is based on the use of pulsed electric fields (PEF). The current dogma is that irreversible cell membrane electro-permeabilisation causes the death of the bacteria. However, the actual effect on the cell-wall architecture has been poorly explored. Here we combine atomic force microscopy and electron microscopy to study the cell-wall organization of living Bacillus pumilus bacteria at the nanoscale. For vegetative bacteria, exposure to PEF led to structural disorganization correlated with morphological and mechanical alterations of the cellwall. For spores, PEF exposure led to the partial destruction of coat protein nanostructures, associated with internal alterations of cortex and core. Our findings reveal for the first time that the cellwall and coat architecture are directly involved in the electro-eradication of bacteria. PMID:26830154

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the morphological characteristics of nuclei and the secondary wall deposition in parenchyma and fiber cells during the whole bamboo growth cycle from shoots to old culms, with a further purpose to assess the developmental differences between fibers and parenchyma cells and analyze the secondary wall deposition mechanism. Initially the fiber wall thickness was less than the parenchyma cell thickness in young shoots, but increased significantly after 1 year. Fibers elongated earlier than both their nuclei and parenchyma cells. Fiber nuclei also elongated and presented the spindle shape in longitudinal section. The formation and elongation of long cells were involved in the fast elongation of internodes. In mature culms, the ways of secondary wall deposition for fibers depended on their diameter and positions. Large diameter fibers usually had more cellwall layers than narrow fibers. (author)

Full Text Available Patterning of the cellulosic cellwall underlies the shape and function of plant cells. The cortical microtubule array plays a central role in the regulation of cellwall patterns. However, the regulatory mechanisms by which secondary cellwall patterns are established through cortical microtubules remain to be fully determined. Our recent study in xylem vessel cells revealed that a mutual inhibitory interaction between cortical microtubules and distinct plasma membrane domains leads to distinctive patterning in secondary cellwalls. Our research revealed that the recycling of active and inactive ROP proteins by a specific GAP and GEF pair establishes distinct de novo plasma membrane domains. Active ROP recruits a plant-specific microtubule-associated protein, MIDD1, which mediates the mutual interaction between cortical microtubules and plasma membrane domains. In this mini review, we summarize recent research regarding secondary wall patterning, with a focus on the emerging interplay between plasma membrane domains and cortical microtubules through MIDD1 and ROP.

The inspection procedure involves moving a detection system along the length of the wall of a cell in the fuel storage rack immersed in water. The detection system has at least one probe for determining the wall thickness. The probe signal is received above the pond and compared against a reference signal. This process allows to verify the presence of neutron absorbing material in the side walls of the cell [fr

Full Text Available Ahmed S Zidan,1,2 Hibah Aldawsari1 1Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 2Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt Abstract: Delivering drugs to intracerebral regions can be accomplished by improving the capacity of transport through blood–brain barrier. Using sertraline as model drug for brain targeting, the current study aimed at modifying its liposomal vesicles with mannopyranoside. Box-Behnken design was employed to statistically optimize the ultrasound parameters, namely ultrasound amplitude, time, and temperature, for maximum mannosylation capacity, sertraline entrapment, and surface charge while minimizing vesicular size. Moreover, in vitro blood–brain barrier transport model was established to assess the transendothelial capacity of the optimized mannosylated vesicles. Results showed a dependence of vesicular size, mannosylation capacity, and sertraline entrapment on cavitation and bubble implosion events that were related to ultrasound power amplitude, temperature. However, short ultrasound duration was required to achieve >90% mannosylation with nanosized vesicles (<200 nm of narrow size distribution. Optimized ultrasound parameters of 65°C, 27%, and 59 seconds for ultrasound temperature, amplitude, and time were elucidated to produce 81.1%, 46.6 nm, and 77.6% sertraline entrapment, vesicular size, and mannosylation capacity, respectively. Moreover, the transendothelial ability was significantly increased by 2.5-fold by mannosylation through binding with glucose transporters. Hence, mannosylated liposomes processed by ultrasound could be a promising approach for manufacturing and scale-up of brain-targeting liposomes. Keywords: CNS delivery, sizing, lipid based formulations, quality by design, sertraline hydrochloride

Full Text Available In contrast to homeohydric vascular plants, mosses employ a poikilohydric strategy for surviving in the dry aerial environment. A detailed understanding of the structure, composition, and development of moss cellwalls can contribute to our understanding of not only the evolution of overall cellwall complexity, but also the differences that have evolved in response to selection for different survival strategies. The model moss species Physcomitrella patens has a predominantly haploid lifecycle consisting of protonemal filaments that regenerate from protoplasts and enlarge by tip growth, and leafy gametophores composed of cells that enlarge by diffuse growth and differentiate into several different types. Advantages for genetic studies include methods for efficient targeted gene modification and extensive genomic resources. Immuno and affinity cytochemical labeling were used to examine the distribution of polysaccharides and proteins in regenerated protoplasts, protonemal filaments, rhizoids, and sectioned gametophores of P. patens. The cellwall composition of regenerated protoplasts was also characterized by flow cytometry. Crystalline cellulose was abundant in the cellwalls of regenerating protoplasts and protonemal cells that developed on media of high osmolarity, whereas homogalacturonan was detected in the walls of protonemal cells that developed on low osmolarity media and not in regenerating protoplasts. Mannan was the major hemicellulose detected in all tissues tested. Arabinogalactan proteins were detected in different cell types by different probes, consistent with structural heterogeneity. The results reveal developmental and cell type specific differences in cellwall composition and provide a basis for analyzing cellwall phenotypes in knockout mutants.

Full Text Available ABSTRACT. Pereyra C.M., Cavaglieri L.R., Keller K.M., Chiacchiera, S.M., Rosa C.A.R. & Dalcero A.M. In vitro ochratoxin A adsorption by commercial yeast cellwalls. [Adsorção in vitro de ocratoxina A por paredes celulares de levedura comercial.] Revista Brasileira de Medicina Veterinária, 37(1:25-28, 2015. Departamento de Microbiología e Inmunología, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Ruta 36 Km 601, (5800 Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina. E-mail: lcavaglieri@exa.unrc.edu.ar The aim of the present study was to evaluate the ochratoxin A (OTA adsorption capacity by two kinds of commercial yeast cellwalls (YCW1 and YCW2 used as dietary supplements. An in vitro test was designed to mimic the temperature (37ºC, pH (2 and passage time (30 min through the stomach of a monogastric animal. The test was performed using different concentrations of YWC (100 and 200 µg/mL and OTA (10; 80; 160 and 1000 ng/mL and extracts were quantified by HPLC. For each OTA concentration, two independent trials varying the concentration of each YCW were performed. The two YCW assayed containing different percentages of polysaccharides, were able to adsorb similar amounts of OTA. Furthermore, the relationship mannans/β-glucans does not influence the rate of adsorption of OTA. In general, it was observed that the adsorption capacity increased with decreasing OTA concentration. Results from this work related to adsorption capacity of OTA with YCW allow predicting that other factor than 3D-structure and β-glucans and mannans could be involved. Future studies could be conducted to test the in vivo binding ability to alleviate the toxic effects of OTA under field conditions. Both YCW are a promising mycotoxin adsorbent to be used in animal feed to prevent mycotoxicoses.

L-forms are cellwall-deficient bacteria that can grow and proliferate in osmotically stabilizing media. Recently, a strain of the Gram-positive model bacterium Bacillus subtilis was constructed that allowed controlled switching between rod-shaped wild-type cells and corresponding L-forms. Both states can be stably maintained under suitable culture conditions. Because of the absence of a cellwall, L-forms are known to be insensitive to β-lactam antibiotics, but reports on the susceptibility of L-forms to other antibiotics that interfere with membrane-anchored steps of cellwall biosynthesis are sparse, conflicting, and strongly influenced by strain background and method of L-form generation. Here we investigated the response of B. subtilis to the presence of cell envelope antibiotics, with regard to both antibiotic resistance and the induction of the known LiaRS- and BceRS-dependent cell envelope stress biosensors. Our results show that B. subtilis L-forms are resistant to antibiotics that interfere with the bactoprenol cycle, such as bacitracin, vancomycin, and mersacidin, but are hypersensitive to nisin and daptomycin, which both affect membrane integrity. Moreover, we established a lacZ-based reporter gene assay for L-forms and provide evidence that LiaRS senses its inducers indirectly (damage sensing), while the Bce module detects its inducers directly (drug sensing).

Genetic modification of herbaceous plant cellwalls to increase biofuels yields from harvested biomass is a primary bioenergy research goal. The focus of much of this research has been on cellwall lignin concentration. Using switchgrass genotypes developed by divergent breeding for ruminant diges...

Cellwall phenolic compounds were analysed in xylem and bast fibre-rich peels of flax stems by biochemical, histochemical and ultrastructural approaches. Localization of cellwall phenolics by the enzyme-gold method using laccase revealed several gold particle distribution patterns. One of the major

Cellulose biosynthesis is mediated by cellulose synthases (CesAs), which constitute into rosette-like cellulose synthase complexe (CSC) on the plasma membrane. Two types of CSCs in Arabidopsis are believed to be involved in cellulose synthesis in the primary cellwall and secondary cellwalls, respectively. In this work, we found that the two type CSCs participated cellulose biosynthesis in differentiating xylem cells undergoing secondary cellwall thickening in Populus. During the cellwall thickening process, expression of one type CSC genes increased while expression of the other type CSC genes decreased. Suppression of different type CSC genes both affected the wall-thickening and disrupted the multilaminar structure of the secondary cellwalls. When CesA7A was suppressed, crystalline cellulose content was reduced, which, however, showed an increase when CesA3D was suppressed. The CesA suppression also affected cellulose digestibility of the wood cellwalls. The results suggest that two type CSCs are involved in coordinating the cellulose biosynthesis in formation of the multilaminar structure in Populus wood secondary cellwalls.

All plant cells are provided with the necessary rigidity to withstand the turgor by an exterior cellwall. This wall is composed of long crystalline cellulose microfibrils embedded in a matrix of other polysaccharides. The cellulose microfibrils are deposited by mobile membrane bound protein

Chitosan (CS) has been extensively used as a protein drug and gene delivery carrier, but its delivery efficiency is unsatisfactory. In this study, a mannose ligand was used to modify CS, which could enhance the delivery efficiency of CS via mannose receptor-mediated endocytosis. A preventative anti-GRP DNA vaccine (pCR3.1-VS-HSP65-TP-GRP6-M2, pGRP) was condensed with mannosylated chitosan (MCS) to form MCS/pGRP nanoparticles. Nanoparticles were intranasally administered in a subcutaneous mice prostate carcinoma model to evaluate the efficacy on inhibition of the growth of tumor cells. The titers of anti-GRP IgG that lasted for 11 weeks were significantly higher than that for administration of CS/pGRP nanoparticles (p intramuscular administration of a pGRP solution (p nanoparticles could suppress the growth of tumor cells. The average tumor weight (0.79 ± 0.30 g) was significantly lower than that in the CS/pGRP nanoparticle group (1.69 ± 0.15 g) (p nanoparticles bound with C-type lectin receptors on macrophages. MCS was an efficient targeting gene delivery carrier and could be used in antitumor immunotherapy.

Cells of the mesocarp of mango cultivar Tommy Atkins were analyzed by Transmission Electron Microscope—TEM to evaluate the effects of doses of 0.5 and 1.0 kGy applied immediately after the fruit and after storage for twenty days at a temperature of 12 °C followed by 5 days of simulated marketing at a temperature of 21 °C. No alteration was found in the structure of the cellwall, middle lamella, and plasma membrane of fruits when analyzed immediately after application of doses. The mesocarp cell structure of the cellwall, middle lamella, and the plasma membrane did however undergo changes after storage. Fruits that received a dose of 0.5 kGy displayed slight changes in cellwall structure and slight disintegration of the middle lamella. Fruits that received a dose of 1.0 kGy displayed more severe changes in the structure of the cellwall, greater middle lamella degradation, and displacement of the plasma membrane. - Highlights: ► Mesocarp cells were analyzed by Transmission Electron Microscope—TEM. ► No change in cellwall structure, middle lamella and plasma membrane was found in fruits immediately after irradiation. ► Changes in cellwall structure, middle lamella and plasma membrane happened after storage. ► Fruits subjected to 0.5 kGy showed smaller cellwall change.

The majority of organs in plants are not established until after germination, when pluripotent stem cells in the growing apices give rise to daughter cells that proliferate and subsequently differentiate into new tissues and organ primordia. This remarkable capacity is not only restricted to the meristem, since maturing cells in many organs can also rapidly alter their identity depending on the cues they receive. One general feature of plant cell differentiation is a change in cellwall composition at the cell surface. Historically, this has been viewed as a downstream response to primary cues controlling differentiation, but a closer inspection of the wall suggests that it may play a much more active role. Specific polymers within the wall can act as substrates for modifications that impact receptor binding, signal mobility, and cell flexibility. Therefore, far from being a static barrier, the cellwall and its constituent polysaccharides can dictate signal transmission and perception, and directly contribute to a cell's capacity to differentiate. In this review, we re-visit the role of plant cellwall-related genes and polysaccharides during various stages of development, with a particular focus on how changes in cellwall machinery accompany the exit of cells from the stem cell niche.

with a wide range of chemical bounds. At present the interest in plant cellwall is growing due to the possibility to convert ligno-cellulosic biomass (e.g. agricultural residues) into bioethanol but also for the benefits to human health of some cellwall constituents found in cereals, in particular beta......-glucans. Plant cellwall biosynthesis is regulated by a large number of genes and regulatory factors but very few of these are known and characterized. This PhD project aimed to the identification of putative candidate genes involved in plant cellwall composition and properties using a genome wide (GWAS......) approach. The species investigate were wheat, barley and B. distachyon, considered a model plant for temperate cereals. Agronomical traits as yield and plant height were also included in the analysis along with cellwall composition and saccharification properties. Several marker-trait associations were...

We investigated the biosynthesis of mixed-linkage β-D-glucan and glucuronoarabinoxylans which make up the hemicellulosic matrix of the primary cellwalls of maize and other cereal grasses. The Golgi apparatus was enriched from plasma membrane and other organelles by flotation density gradient centrifugation. Glucan synthase I and II, which are established markers for Golgi and plasma membrane, respectively, displayed considerable overlap in conventional separations with sucrose density gradients. Flotation gradients improved separation of the membranes substantially, but the different synthases themselves also incorporated radioactivity from either 10 μM or 1 mM UDP-[ 14 C]-glucose into polymer. Relative incorporation of radioactivity into polymers from UDP-[ 14 C]-xylose by the various membrane fractions was nearly identical to relative IDPase activities, indicating that combined xylosyl transferase-xylan synthase represents a new, unequivocal marker for the Golgi apparatus. We also have developed techniques of gas-liquid chromatography and radiogas proportional counting to achieve capillary quality separation of partially methylated alditol acetates with simultaneous determination of radioactivity in the derivatives. Digestion of polymeric products by specific endo-glycanohydrolases to diagnostic oligosaccharides also reveal specific kinds of polysaccharides synthesized by the Golgi membranes. A combination of these techniques provides unequivocal determination of the linkage structure of specific polymers synthesized by the purified Golgi apparatus

Full Text Available C. albicans is one of the most common fungal pathogen of humans, causing local and superficial mucosal infections in immunocompromised individuals. Given that the key structure mediating host-C. albicans interactions is the fungal cellwall, we aimed to identify features of the cellwall inducing epithelial responses and be associated with fungal pathogenesis. We demonstrate here the importance of cellwall protein glycosylation in epithelial immune activation with a predominant role for the highly branched N-glycosylation residues. Moreover, these glycan moieties induce growth arrest and apoptosis of epithelial cells. Using an in vitro model of oral candidosis we demonstrate, that apoptosis induction by C. albicans wild-type occurs in early stage of infection and strongly depends on intact cellwall protein glycosylation. These novel findings demonstrate that glycosylation of the C. albicans cellwall proteins appears essential for modulation of epithelial immunity and apoptosis induction, both of which may promote fungal pathogenesis in vivo.

Full Text Available Enterococcus faecalis is an opportunistic nosocomial pathogen that is highly resistant to a variety of environmental insults, including an intrinsic tolerance to antimicrobials that target the cellwall (CW. With the goal of determining the CW-stress stimulon of E. faecalis, the global transcriptional profile of E. faecalis OG1RF exposed to ampicillin, bacitracin, cephalotin or vancomycin was obtained via microarrays. Exposure to the β-lactams ampicillin and cephalotin resulted in the fewest transcriptional changes with 50 and 192 genes differentially expressed 60 min after treatment, respectively. On the other hand, treatment with bacitracin or vancomycin for 60 min affected the expression of, respectively, 377 and 297 genes. Despite the differences in the total number of genes affected, all antibiotics induced a very similar gene expression pattern with an overrepresentation of genes encoding hypothetical proteins, followed by genes encoding proteins associated with cell envelope metabolism as well as transport and binding proteins. In particular, all drug treatments, most notably bacitracin and vancomycin, resulted in an apparent metabolic downshift based on the repression of genes involved in translation, energy metabolism, transport and binding. Only 19 genes were up-regulated by all conditions at both the 30 and 60 min time points. Among those 19 genes, 4 genes encoding hypothetical proteins (EF0026, EF0797, EF1533 and EF3245 were inactivated and the respective mutant strains characterized in relation to antibiotic tolerance and virulence in the Galleria mellonella model. The phenotypes obtained for two of these mutants, ΔEF1533 and ΔEF3245, support further characterization of these genes as potential candidates for the development of novel preventive or therapeutic approaches.

Drug-resistant bacterial infections threaten to overburden our healthcare system and disrupt modern medicine. A large class of potent antibiotics, including vancomycin, operate by interfering with bacterial cellwall biosynthesis. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) evade the blockage of cellwall biosynthesis by altering cellwall precursors, rendering them drug insensitive. Herein, we reveal the phenotypic plasticity and cellwall remodeling of VRE in response to vancomycin in live bacterial cells via a metabolic probe. A synthetic cellwall analog was designed and constructed to monitor cellwall structural alterations. Our results demonstrate that the biosynthetic pathway for vancomycin-resistant precursors can be hijacked by synthetic analogs to track the kinetics of phenotype induction. In addition, we leveraged this probe to interrogate the response of VRE cells to vancomycin analogs and a series of cellwall-targeted antibiotics. Finally, we describe a proof-of-principle strategy to visually inspect drug resistance induction. Based on our findings, we anticipate that our metabolic probe will play an important role in further elucidating the interplay among the enzymes involved in the VRE biosynthetic rewiring.

The cellwall is important for maintenance of the structural integrity and morphology of fungal cells. Besides beta-glucan and chitin, alpha-glucan is a major polysaccharide in the cellwall of many fungi. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, cellwall alpha-glucan is an essential

The differentiation of the specialized secretory teat cells of the leaf cavity pore of Azolla species was investigated at the ultrastructural level with emphasis on their peculiar cellwall projections. The results indicated that the projections are formed as soon as the teat cells complete their differentiation and that their production is principally associated with changes in endoplasmic reticulum profiles. The number of projections increases with the teat cell age and is stimulated under salt and P deficiency stresses. Salt stress also promotes their emergence on Azolla species that under normal conditions do not produce projections. Cytochemical tests on different Azolla species showed that the projection composition is almost identical: proteins, acidic polysaccharides, and pectin are always detected. This study revealed that Azolla teat cell projections differ fundamentally from other types of hitherto described cellwall projections that are considered as remnant structures from cell separation. In contrast, in Azolla teat cells projections are actively produced and compounds are excreted by an exocytotic mechanism. The possible role of the projections in the symbiosis of Azolla spp. with Anabaena azollae is discussed.

Stomatal morphology and function have remained largely conserved throughout ∼400 million years of plant evolution. However, plant cellwall composition has evolved and changed. Here stomatal cellwall composition was investigated in different vascular plant groups in attempt to understand their possible effect on stomatal function. A renewed look at stomatal cellwalls was attempted utilizing digitalized polar microscopy, confocal microscopy, histology and a numerical finite-elements simulation. The six species of vascular plants chosen for this study cover a broad structural, ecophysiological and evolutionary spectrum: ferns ( Asplenium nidus and Platycerium bifurcatum ) and angiosperms ( Arabidopsis thaliana and Commelina erecta ) with kidney-shaped stomata, and grasses (angiosperms, family Poaceae) with dumbbell-shaped stomata ( Sorghum bicolor and Triticum aestivum ). Three distinct patterns of cellulose crystallinity in stomatal cellwalls were observed: Type I (kidney-shaped stomata, ferns), Type II (kidney-shaped stomata, angiosperms) and Type III (dumbbell-shaped stomata, grasses). The different stomatal cellwall attributes investigated (cellulose crystallinity, pectins, lignin, phenolics) exhibited taxon-specific patterns, with reciprocal substitution of structural elements in the end-walls of kidney-shaped stomata. According to a numerical bio-mechanical model, the end walls of kidney-shaped stomata develop the highest stresses during opening. The data presented demonstrate for the first time the existence of distinct spatial patterns of varying cellulose crystallinity in guard cellwalls. It is also highly intriguing that in angiosperms crystalline cellulose appears to have replaced lignin that occurs in the stomatal end-walls of ferns serving a similar wall strengthening function. Such taxon-specific spatial patterns of cellwall components could imply different biomechanical functions, which in turn could be a consequence of differences in

A major question in plant biology concerns the specification and functional differentiation of cell types. This is in the context of constraints imposed by networks of cellwalls that both adhere cells and contribute to the form and function of developing organs. Here, we report the identification...... is an important factor for the study of phloem unloading of sucrose. Using microarrays of synthetic oligosaccharides, the LM26 epitope has been identified as a β-1,6-galactosyl substitution of β-1,4-galactan requiring more than three backbone residues for optimized recognition. This branched galactan structure...

Full Text Available Cadmium (Cd pollution renders many soils across the world unsuited or unsafe for food- or feed-orientated agriculture. The main mechanism of Cd phytotoxicity is the induction of oxidative stress, amongst others through the depletion of glutathione. Oxidative stress can damage lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, leading to growth inhibition or even cell death. The plant cell has a variety of tools to defend itself against Cd stress. First and foremost, cellwalls might prevent Cd from entering and damaging the protoplast. Both the primary and secondary cellwall have an array of defensive mechanisms that can be adapted to cope with Cd. Pectin, which contains most of the negative charges within the primary cellwall, can sequester Cd very effectively. In the secondary cellwall, lignification can serve to immobilize Cd and create a tougher barrier for entry. Changes in cellwall composition are, however, dependent on nutrients and conversely might affect their uptake. Additionally, the role of ascorbate (AsA as most important apoplastic antioxidant is of considerable interest, due to the fact that oxidative stress is a major mechanism underlying Cd toxicity, and that AsA biosynthesis shares several links with cellwall construction. In this review, modifications of the plant cellwall in response to Cd exposure are discussed. Focus lies on pectin in the primary cellwall, lignification in the secondary cellwall and the importance of AsA in the apoplast. Regarding lignification, we attempt to answer the question whether increased lignification is merely a consequence of Cd toxicity, or rather an elicited defense response. We propose a model for lignification as defense response, with a central role for hydrogen peroxide as substrate and signaling molecule.

Streptococcus sanguinis is a member of the viridans group of streptococci and a leading cause of the life-threatening endovascular disease infective endocarditis. Initial contact with the cardiac infection site is likely mediated by S. sanguinis surface proteins. In an attempt to identify the proteins required for this crucial step in pathogenesis, we searched for surface-exposed, cellwall-anchored proteins encoded by S. sanguinis and then used a targeted signature-tagged mutagenesis (STM) approach to evaluate their contributions to virulence. Thirty-three predicted cellwall-anchored proteins were identified—a number much larger than those found in related species. The requirement of each cellwall-anchored protein for infective endocarditis was assessed in the rabbit model. It was found that no single cellwall-anchored protein was essential for the development of early infective endocarditis. STM screening was also employed for the evaluation of three predicted sortase transpeptidase enzymes, which mediate the cell surface presentation of cellwall-anchored proteins. The sortase A mutant exhibited a modest (∼2-fold) reduction in competitiveness, while the other two sortase mutants were indistinguishable from the parental strain. The combined results suggest that while cellwall-anchored proteins may play a role in S. sanguinis infective endocarditis, strategies designed to interfere with individual cellwall-anchored proteins or sortases would not be effective for disease prevention. PMID:19703977

Streptococcus sanguinis is a member of the viridans group of streptococci and a leading cause of the life-threatening endovascular disease infective endocarditis. Initial contact with the cardiac infection site is likely mediated by S. sanguinis surface proteins. In an attempt to identify the proteins required for this crucial step in pathogenesis, we searched for surface-exposed, cellwall-anchored proteins encoded by S. sanguinis and then used a targeted signature-tagged mutagenesis (STM) approach to evaluate their contributions to virulence. Thirty-three predicted cellwall-anchored proteins were identified-a number much larger than those found in related species. The requirement of each cellwall-anchored protein for infective endocarditis was assessed in the rabbit model. It was found that no single cellwall-anchored protein was essential for the development of early infective endocarditis. STM screening was also employed for the evaluation of three predicted sortase transpeptidase enzymes, which mediate the cell surface presentation of cellwall-anchored proteins. The sortase A mutant exhibited a modest (approximately 2-fold) reduction in competitiveness, while the other two sortase mutants were indistinguishable from the parental strain. The combined results suggest that while cellwall-anchored proteins may play a role in S. sanguinis infective endocarditis, strategies designed to interfere with individual cellwall-anchored proteins or sortases would not be effective for disease prevention.

Gene transfer mediated by mannosylated chitosan (MCS) is a safe and promising approach for gene and vaccine delivery. MCS nanoparticles based gene delivery system showed high in vivo delivery efficiency and elicited strong immune responses in mice. However, little knowledge about the cell binding, transfection efficiency and intracellular trafficking of MCS nanoparticles had been acquired. In this study, using gastrin-releasing peptide as a model plasmid (pGRP), the binding of MCS/pGRP nanoparticles to macrophages and the intracellular trafficking of MCS/pGRP nanoparticles in macrophages were investigated. MCS-mediated transfection efficiency in macrophages was also evaluated using pGL-3 as a reporter gene. The results showed that the binding and transfection efficiency of MCS nanoparticles in macrophages was higher than that of CS, which was attributed to the interaction between mannose ligands in MCS and mannose receptors on the surface of macrophages. Observation with a confocal laser scanning microscope indicated the cellular uptake of MCS/pGRP nanoparticles were more than that of CS/pGRP nanoparticles in macrophages. MCS/pGRP nanoparticles were taken up by macrophages and most of them were entrapped in endosomal/lysosomal compartments. After the nanoparticles escaping from endosomal/lysosomal compartments, naked pGRP entered the nucleus, and a few MCS might enter the nucleus in terms of nanoparticles. Overall, MCS has the potential to be an excellent macrophage-targeting gene delivery carrier.

Rod-shaped bacteria elongate by the action of cell-wall synthesis complexes linked to underlying dynamic MreB filaments, but how these proteins function to allow continued elongation as a rod remains unknown. To understand how the movement of these filaments relates to cellwall synthesis, we characterized the dynamics of MreB and the cellwall elongation machinery using high-resolution particle tracking in Bacillus subtilis. We found that both MreB and the elongation machinery move in linear paths across the cell, moving at similar rates (˜20nm / second) and angles to the cell body, suggesting they function as single complexes. These proteins move circumferentially around the cell, principally perpendicular to its length. We find that the motions of these complexes are independent, as they can pause and reverse,and also as nearby complexes move independently in both directions across one surface of the cell. Inhibition of cellwall synthesis with antibiotics or depletions in the cellwall synthesis machinery blocked MreB movement, suggesting that the cellwall synthetic machinery is the motor in this system. We propose that bacteria elongate by the uncoordinated, circumferential movements of synthetic complexes that span the plasma membrane and insert radial hoops of new peptidoglycan during their transit.

This review provides abstracts of our research for which the year 2000 prize of The Japanese Society for Medical Mycology was awarded. The study consists of 4 fields: 1)Ultrastructure and biochemistry of the cellwalls of dermatophytes. 2) Freeze-fracture electron microscopic study on the membrane systems of pathogenic fungi. 3) Action mechanisms of antifungal agents in terms of membrane structure and functions. 4) Dimorphism and virulence of pathogenic fungi in terms of molecular biology of membrane lipids. Since the detailed contents of these studies were reported in my previous review article (Jpn J Med Mycol 41: 211-217, 2000), I would like to mention these studies only briefly here, together with a detailed review of the septal cellwall architecture of dermatophytes, which I did not cover in my earlier articles.

Full Text Available The current status of lignocellulosic biomass as an invaluable resource in industry, agriculture and health has spurred increased interest in understanding the transcriptional regulation of secondary cellwall (SCW biosynthesis. The last decade of research has revealed an extensive network of NAC, MYB and other families of transcription factors regulating Arabidopsis SCW biosynthesis, and numerous studies have explored SCW-related transcription factors in other dicots and monocots. Whilst the general structure of the Arabidopsis network has been a topic of several reviews, they have not comprehensively represented the detailed protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions described in the literature, and an understanding of network dynamics and functionality has not yet been achieved for SCW formation. Furthermore the methodologies employed in studies of SCW transcriptional regulation have not received much attention, especially in the case of non-model organisms. In this review, we have reconstructed the most exhaustive literature-based network representations to date of SCW transcriptional regulation in Arabidopsis. We include a manipulable Cytoscape representation of the Arabidopsis SCW transcriptional network to aid in future studies, along with a list of supporting literature for each documented interaction. Amongst other topics, we discuss the various components of the network, its evolutionary conservation in plants, putative modules and dynamic mechanisms that may influence network function, and the approaches that have been employed in network inference. Future research should aim to better understand network function and its response to dynamic perturbations, whilst the development and application of genome-wide approaches such as ChIP-seq and systems genetics are in progress for the study of SCW transcriptional regulation in non-model organisms.

Osmotically sensitive protoplasts were released from the mycelium of the basidiomycete Schizophyllum commune through the action ofan extracellular enzyme preparation isolated from the culture filtrate of Trichoderma viride (recently renamed T. harzianum) grown on hyphal walls of the former organism.

The morphogenesis of lobed mesophyll cells (MCs) is highly controlled and coupled with intercellular space formation. Cortical microtubule rings define the number and the position of MC isthmi. This work investigated early events of MC morphogenesis, especially the mechanism defining the position of contacts between MCs. The distributions of plasmodesmata, the hemicelluloses callose and (1 → 3,1 → 4)-β-d-glucans (MLGs) and the pectin epitopes recognized by the 2F4, JIM5, JIM7 and LM6 antibodies were studied in the cellwalls of Zea mays MCs. Matrix cellwall polysaccharides were immunolocalized in hand-made sections and in sections of material embedded in LR White resin. Callose was also localized using aniline blue in hand-made sections. Plasmodesmata distribution was examined by transmission electron microscopy. Before reorganization of the dispersed cortical microtubules into microtubule rings, particular bands of the longitudinal MC walls, where the MC contacts will form, locally differentiate by selective (1) deposition of callose and the pectin epitopes recognized by the 2F4, LM6, JIM5 and JIM7 antibodies, (2) degradation of MLGs and (3) formation of secondary plasmodesmata clusterings. This cellwall matrix differentiation persists in cell contacts of mature MCs. Simultaneously, the wall bands between those of future cell contacts differentiate with (1) deposition of local cellwall thickenings including cellulose microfibrils, (2) preferential presence of MLGs, (3) absence of callose and (4) transient presence of the pectins identified by the JIM5 and JIM7 antibodies. The wall areas between cell contacts expand determinately to form the cell isthmi and the cell lobes. The morphogenesis of lobed MCs is characterized by the early patterned differentiation of two distinct cellwall subdomains, defining the sites of the future MC contacts and of the future MC isthmi respectively. This patterned cellwall differentiation precedes cortical microtubule

Antifungal exposure can elicit immunological effects that contribute to activity in vivo, but this activity is rarely screened in vitro in a fashion analogous to MIC testing. We used RAW 264.7 murine macrophages that express a secreted embryonic alkaline phosphatase (SEAP) gene induced by transcriptional activation of NF-κB and activator protein 1 (AP-1) to develop a screen for immunopharmacological activity of cellwall-active antifungal agents. Isolates of Candida albicans and Aspergillus f...

The Cnr (Colourless non-ripening) tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) mutant has an aberrant fruit-ripening phenotype in which fruit do not soften and have reduced cell adhesion between pericarp cells. Cellwalls from Cnr fruit were analysed in order to assess the possible contribution of pectic...... polysaccharides to the non-softening and altered cell adhesion phenotype. Cellwall material (CWM) and solubilised fractions of mature green and red ripe fruit were analysed by chemical, enzymatic and immunochemical techniques. No major differences in CWM sugar composition were detected although differences were...... that was chelator-soluble was 50% less in Cnr cellwalls at both the mature green and red ripe stages. Chelator-soluble material from ripe-stage Cnr was more susceptible to endo-polygalacturonase degradation than the corresponding material from wild-type fruit. In addition, cellwalls from Cnr fruit contained...

Plant tissue is composed of many different types of cells. Plant cells required to withstand mechanical pressure, such as vessel elements and fibers, have a secondary cellwall consisting of polysaccharides and lignin, which strengthen the cellwall structure and stabilize the cell shape. Previous attempts to alter the properties of the cellwall have mainly focused on reducing the amount of lignin or altering its structure in order to ease its extraction from raw woody materials for the pulp and paper and biorefinery industries. In this work, we propose the in vivo modification of the cellwall structure and mechanical properties by the introduction of resilin, an elastic protein that is able to crosslink with lignin monomers during cellwall synthesis. The effects of resilin were studied in transgenic eucalyptus plants. The protein was detected within the cellwall and its expression led to an increase in the elastic modulus of transgenic stems. In addition, transgenic stems displayed a higher yield point and toughness, indicating that they were able to absorb more energy before breaking.

Because of the diverging susceptibility delta rho/delta Tau near the liquid-vapor critical point, temperature gradients must be kept small to maintain adequate sample homogeneity. In our Science Requirements Document we paid particular attention to radial density gradients caused by equilibration of the xenon sample. Axial density gradients were addressed through the requirement that the cell's copper wall have a gradient less than 22 microK/m. This report re-examines the cellwall's temperature distribution in more detail by estimating all known significant contributions to temperature differences on the cell's wall.

BACTERIAL CELLWALL PRESERVATION DURING ORGANIC MATTER DIAGENESIS IN SEDIMENTS OFF PERU The spatial distribution of total hydrolysable amino acids, total hydrolysable amino sugars and amino acid enantiomers (D- and L-forms) were investigated in surface sediments at 20 stations in the Peru margin: 9......°45 S - 13º32 S. The objective of this study was to assess the preservation of bacterial cellwalls during diagenesis of organic matter. Bacterial cellwalls were traced by analysis of biomarkers uniquely produced by bacteria (D-amino acids and muramic acid). The diagenetic status of the sediments......:00 Presentation is given by student: No...

in CGA is currently unknown, as no genomes are available, so this study sought to give insight into the evolution of the biosynthetic machinery of CGA through an analysis of available transcriptomes. METHODS: Available CGA transcriptomes were mined for cellwall biosynthesis GTs and compared with GTs...... to colonize land. These cellwalls provide support and protection, are a source of signalling molecules, and provide developmental cues for cell differentiation and elongation. The cellwall of land plants is a highly complex fibre composite, characterized by cellulose cross-linked by non......-cellulosic polysaccharides, such as xyloglucan, embedded in a matrix of pectic polysaccharides. How the land plant cellwall evolved is currently unknown: early-divergent chlorophyte and prasinophyte algae genomes contain a low number of glycosyl transferases (GTs), while land plants contain hundreds. The number of GTs...

The fmtA gene is a member of the Staphylococcus aureus core cellwall stimulon. The FmtA protein interacts with β-lactams through formation of covalent species. Here, we show that FmtA has weak d-Ala-d-Ala-carboxypeptidase activity and is capable of covalently incorporating C14-Gly into cellwalls. The fluorescence microscopy study showed that the protein is localized to the cell division septum. Furthermore, we show that wall teichoic acids interact specifically with FmtA and mediate recruitment of FmtA to the S. aureus cellwall. Subjection of S. aureus to FmtA concentrations of 0.1 μM or less induces autolysis and biofilm production. This effect requires the presence of wall teichoic acids. At FmtA concentrations greater than 0.2 μM, autolysis and biofilm formation in S. aureus are repressed and growth is enhanced. Our findings indicate dual roles of FmtA in S. aureus growth, whereby at low concentrations, FmtA may modulate the activity of the major autolysin (AtlA) of S. aureus and, at high concentrations, may participate in synthesis of cellwall peptidoglycan. These two roles of FmtA may reflect dual functions of FmtA in the absence and presence of cellwall stress, respectively. PMID:22564846

Full Text Available Secondary cellwalls mediate many crucial biological processes in plants including mechanical support, water and nutrient transport and stress management. They also provide an abundant resource of renewable feed, fiber, and fuel. The grass family contains the most important food, forage, and biofuel crops. Understanding the regulatory mechanism of secondary wall formation in grasses is necessary for exploiting these plants for agriculture and industry. Previous research has established a detailed model of the secondary wall regulatory network in the dicot model species Arabidopsis thaliana. Grasses, branching off from the dicot ancestor 140–150 million years ago, display distinct cellwall morphology and composition, suggesting potential for a different secondary wall regulation program from that established for dicots. Recently, combined application of molecular, genetic and bioinformatics approaches have revealed more transcription factors involved in secondary cellwall biosynthesis in grasses. Compared with the dicots, grasses exhibit a relatively conserved but nevertheless divergent transcriptional regulatory program to activate their secondary cellwall development and to coordinate secondary wall biosynthesis with other physiological processes.

Wall chart: The predominant component of the bacterial cellwall, peptidoglycan, consists of long alternating stretches of aminosugar subunits interlinked in a large three-dimensional network and is formed from precursors through several cytosolic and membrane-bound steps. The high tolerance of the

The invention provides a method for improving binding of a proteinaceous substance to cell-wall material of a Gram-positive bacterium, said substance comprising an AcmA cellwall binding domain or homolog or functional derivative thereof, said method comprising treating said cell-wall material with

Full Text Available Plant biomass is a large source of fermentable sugars for the synthesis of bioproducts using engineered microbes. These sugars are stored as cellwall polymers, mainly cellulose and hemicellulose, and are embedded with lignin, which makes their enzymatic hydrolysis challenging. One of the strategies to reduce cellwall recalcitrance is the modification of lignin content and composition. Lignin is a phenolic polymer of methylated aromatic alcohols and its synthesis in tissues developing secondary cellwalls is a significant sink for the consumption of the methyl donor S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet. In this study, we demonstrate in Arabidopsis stems that targeted expression of S-adenosylmethionine hydrolase (AdoMetase, E.C. 3.3.1.2 in secondary cell-wall synthesizing tissues reduces the AdoMet pool and impacts lignin content and composition. In particular, both NMR analysis and pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry of lignin in engineered biomass showed relative enrichment of non-methylated p-hydroxycinnamyl (H units and a reduction of dimethylated syringyl (S units. This indicates a lower degree of methylation compared to that in wild-type lignin. Quantification of cellwall-bound hydroxycinnamates revealed a reduction of ferulate in AdoMetase transgenic lines. Biomass from transgenic lines, in contrast to that in control plants, exhibits an enrichment of glucose content and a reduction in the degree of hemicellulose glucuronoxylan methylation. We also show that these modifications resulted in a reduction of cellwall recalcitrance, because sugar yield generated by enzymatic biomass saccharification was greater than that of wild type plants. Considering that transgenic plants show no important diminution of biomass yields, and that heterologous expression of AdoMetase protein can be spatiotemporally optimized, this novel approach provides a valuable option for the improvement of lignocellulosic biomass feedstock.

Extensins are one subfamily of the cellwall hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins, containing characteristic SerHyp4 glycosylation motifs and intermolecular cross-linking motifs such as the TyrXaaTyr sequence. Extensins are believed to form a cross-linked network in the plant cellwall through the tyrosine-derivatives isodityrosine, pulcherosine, and di-isodityrosine. Overexpression of three synthetic genes encoding different elastin-arabinogalactan protein-extensin hybrids in tobacco suspension cultured cells yielded novel cross-linking glycoproteins that shared features of the extensins, arabinogalactan proteins and elastin. The cellwall properties of the three transgenic cell lines were all changed, but in different ways. One transgenic cell line showed decreased cellulose crystallinity and increased wall xyloglucan content; the second transgenic cell line contained dramatically increased hydration capacity and notably increased cellwall biomass, increased di-isodityrosine, and increased protein content; the third transgenic cell line displayed wall phenotypes similar to wild type cells, except changed xyloglucan epitope extractability. These data indicate that overexpression of modified extensins may be a route to engineer plants for bioenergy and biomaterial production.

Secretion in plant cells is often studied by looking at well-characterised, evolutionarily conserved membrane proteins associated with particular endomembrane compartments. Studies using live cell microscopy and fluorescent proteins have illuminated the highly dynamic nature of trafficking, and electron microscopy studies have resolved the ultrastructure of many compartments. Biochemical and molecular analyses have further informed about the function of particular proteins and endomembrane compartments. In plants, there are over 40 cell types, each with highly specialised functions, and hence potential variations in cell biological processes and cellwall structure. As the primary function of secretion in plant cells is for the biosynthesis of cellwall polysaccharides and apoplastic transport complexes, it follows that utilising our knowledge of cellwall glycosyltransferases (GTs) and their polysaccharide products will inform us about secretion. Indeed, this knowledge has led to novel insights into the secretory pathway, including previously unseen post-TGN secretory compartments. Conversely, our knowledge of trafficking routes of secretion will inform us about polarised and localised deposition of cellwalls and their constituent polysaccharides/glycoproteins. In this review, we look at what is known about cellwall biosynthesis and the secretory pathway and how the different approaches can be used in a complementary manner to study secretion and provide novel insights into these processes.

We investigated the synthesis and turnover of cellwall polysaccharides of the flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) plant during development of the phloem fibers. One-month-old flax plants were exposed to a 40-min pulse with 14CO2 followed by 8-h, 24-h, and 1-month periods of chase with ambient CO2, and radioactivity in cellwall sugars was determined in various plant parts. The relative radioactivity of glucose in noncellulosic polysaccharides was the highest compared with all other cellwall sugars immediately after the pulse and decreased substantially during the subsequent chase. The relative radioactivities of the other cellwall sugars changed with differing rates, indicating turnover of specific polysaccharides. Notably, after 1 month of chase there was a marked decrease in the proportional mass and total radioactivity in cellwall galactose, indicating a long-term turnover of the galactans enriched in the fiber-containing tissues. The ratio of radiolabeled xylose to arabinose also increased during the chase, indicating a turnover of arabinose-containing polymers and interconversion to xylose. The pattern of label redistribution differed between organs, indicating that the cellwall turnover processes are tissue- and cell-specific

Most bacterial cells are enclosed in a single macromolecule of the cellwall polymer, peptidoglycan, which is required for shape determination and maintenance of viability, while peptidoglycan biosynthesis is an important antibiotic target. It is hypothesized that cellular enlargement requires regional expansion of the cellwall through coordinated insertion and hydrolysis of peptidoglycan. Here, a group of (apparent glucosaminidase) peptidoglycan hydrolases are identified that are together required for cell enlargement and correct cellular morphology of Staphylococcus aureus, demonstrating the overall importance of this enzyme activity. These are Atl, SagA, ScaH, and SagB. The major advance here is the explanation of the observed morphological defects in terms of the mechanical and biochemical properties of peptidoglycan. It was shown that cells lacking groups of these hydrolases have increased surface stiffness and, in the absence of SagB, substantially increased glycan chain length. This indicates that, beyond their established roles (for example in cell separation), some hydrolases enable cellular enlargement by making peptidoglycan easier to stretch, providing the first direct evidence demonstrating that cellular enlargement occurs via modulation of the mechanical properties of peptidoglycan. Understanding bacterial growth and division is a fundamental problem, and knowledge in this area underlies the treatment of many infectious diseases. Almost all bacteria are surrounded by a macromolecule of peptidoglycan that encloses the cell and maintains shape, and bacterial cells must increase the size of this molecule in order to enlarge themselves. This requires not only the insertion of new peptidoglycan monomers, a process targeted by antibiotics, including penicillin, but also breakage of existing bonds, a potentially hazardous activity for the cell. Using Staphylococcus aureus, we have identified a set of enzymes that are critical for cellular enlargement. We

Structural changes of cellwalls under intense mechanical treatment of corn straw and oil-palm fibers were studied by electron and light microscopy. Differences in the character of destruction of plant biomass were revealed, and the dependence of destruction mechanisms on the structure of cellwalls and lignin content was demonstrated. We suggest that the high reactivity of the particles of corn straw (about 18% of lignin) after intense mechanical treatment is related to disordering of cellwalls and an increase of the surface area, while in the case of oil palm (10% of lignin) the major contribution into an increase in the reactivity is made by an increase of surface area. -- Highlights: ► Structure of cellwalls determines the processes of plant materials' destruction. ► Ultrastructure of highly lignified materials strongly disordering by mechanical action. ► Ultrastructure of low-lignified materials is not disordering by mechanical action.

In the last three decades, more than 200 monoclonal antibodies have been raised against most classes of plant cellwall polysaccharides by different laboratories world-wide. These antibodies are widely used to identify differences in plant cellwall components in mutants, organ and tissue types......, and developmental stages. Despite their importance and broad use, the precise binding epitope for only a few of these antibodies has been determined. Here, we use a plant glycan microarray equipped with 88 synthetic oligosaccharides to comprehensively map the epitopes of plant cellwall glycan-directed antibodies....... Our results reveal the binding epitopes for 78 arabinogalactan-, rhamnogalacturonan-, xylan-, and xyloglucan-directed antibodies. We demonstrate that, with knowledge of the exact epitopes recognized by individual antibodies, specific glycosyl hydrolases can be implemented into immunological cellwall...

The sub-theme of this year’s meeting, ‘CellWall Research in a Post-Genome World’, will be a consideration of the dramatic technological changes that have occurred in the three years since the previous cellwall Gordon Conference in the area of DNA sequencing. New technologies are providing additional perspectives of plant cellwall biology across a rapidly growing number of species, highlighting a myriad of architectures, compositions, and functions in both "conventional" and specialized cellwalls. This meeting will focus on addressing the knowledge gaps and technical challenges raised by such diversity, as well as our need to understand the underlying processes for critical applications such as crop improvement and bioenergy resource development.

Full Text Available The cellwall of pathogenic fungi plays import roles in interaction with the host, so that its composition and structure may determine the course of infection. Here we present an overview of the current and past knowledge on the cellwall constituents of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and P. lutzii. These are temperature-dependent dimorphic fungi that cause paracoccidioidomycosis, a systemic granulomatous and debilitating disease. Focus is given on cellwall carbohydrate and protein contents, their immune-stimulatory features, adhesion properties, drug target characteristics, and morphological phase specificity. We offer a journey towards the future understanding of the dynamic life that takes place in the cellwall and of the changes that it may suffer when living in the human host.

Cellwalls of Zea mays (cv L.G.11) seedlings labeled with 14 C were treated with α-amylase from Bacillus subtilis to remove starch and mixed linkage glucans. These walls released arabinose, xylose, galactose, and galacturonic acid in addition to glucose when they were allowed to autolyze. Methylation analysis was performed on samples of wall which had been incubated autolytically and the results indicated that degradation of the major polymer of the wall, the glucoarabinoxylan, had occurred. A number of glycanases could be dissociated from the wall by use of 3 M LiCL. The proteins which were released were found to contain a number of exoglycosidase activities in addition to being effective in degrading the polysaccharide substrates, araban, xylan, galactan, laminarin, mannan, and polygalacturonic acid. The effects of these enzymes on the wall during autolysis appear to result from endo-activity in addition to exo-activity. The structural changes that occurred in the cellwalls during autolysis were found to be related to the changes previously found to occur in cellwalls during auxin induced extension

Plant cellwalls from maize (Zea mays L.) are imaged using atomic force microscopy (AFM) at the sub-nanometer resolution. We found that the size and shape of fundamental cellulose elementary fibril (CEF) is essentially identical in different cellwall types, i.e., primary wall (PW), parenchyma secondary wall (pSW), and sclerenchyma secondary wall (sSW), which is consistent with previously proposed 36-chain model (Ding et al., 2006, J. Agric. Food Chem.). The arrangement of individual CEFs in these wall types exhibits two orientations. In PW, CEFs are horizontally associated through their hydrophilic faces, and the planar faces are exposed, forming ribbon-like macrofibrils. In pSW and sSW, CEFs are vertically oriented, forming layers, in which hemicelluloses are interacted with the hydrophobic faces of the CEF and serve as spacers between CEFs. Lignification occurs between CEF-hemicelluloses layers in secondary walls. Furthermore, we demonstrated quantitative analysis of plant cellwall accessibility to and digestibility by different cellulase systems at real-time using chemical imaging (e.g., stimulated Raman scattering) and fluorescence microscopy of labeled cellulases (Ding et al., 2012, Science, in press).

Maize (Zea mays L.) suspension-cultured cells habituated to a cellulose biosynthesis inhibitor 2,6-dichlorobenzonitrile (DCB) have a modified cellwall, in which the reduction in the cellulose content is compensated by a network of highly cross-linked feruloylated arabinoxylans and the deposition of lignin-like polymers. For both arabinoxylan cross-linking and lignin polymerization, class III peroxidases (POXs) have been demonstrated to have a prominent role. For the first time, a comparative study of POX activity and isoforms in control and cellulose-impaired cells has been addressed, also taking into account their cellular distribution in different compartments. Proteins from the spent medium (SM), soluble cellular (SC), ionically (ICW) and covalently bound cellwall protein fractions were assayed for total and specific peroxidase activity by using coniferyl and sinapyl alcohol and ferulic acid as substrates. The isoPOX profile was obtained by isoelectric focusing. POX activity was higher in DCB-habituated than in non-habituated cells in all protein fractions at all cell culture stages. For all substrates assayed, SC and ICW fractions showed higher activity at the early-log growth phase than at the late-log phase. However, the highest POX activity in the spent medium was found at the late-log phase. According to the isoPOX profiles, the highest diversity of isoPOXs was detected in the ICW and SM protein fractions. The latter fraction contained isoPOXs with higher activity in DCB-habituated cells. Some of the isoPOXs detected could be involved in cross-linking of arabinoxylans and in the lignin-like polymer formation in DCB-habituated cells. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) enhanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has recently emerged as a powerful technique for the study of material surfaces. In this study, we demonstrate its potential to investigate cell surface in intact cells. Using Bacillus subtilis bacterial cells as an example, it is shown that the polarizing agent 1-(TEMPO-4-oxy)-3-(TEMPO-4-amino)propan-2-ol (TOTAPOL) has a strong binding affinity to cellwall polymers (peptidoglycan). This particular interaction is thoroughly investigated with a systematic study on extracted cellwall materials, disrupted cells, and entire cells, which proved that TOTAPOL is mainly accumulating in the cellwall. This property is used on one hand to selectively enhance or suppress cellwall signals by controlling radical concentrations and on the other hand to improve spectral resolution by means of a difference spectrum. Comparing DNP-enhanced and conventional solid-state NMR, an absolute sensitivity ratio of 24 was obtained on the entire cell sample. This important increase in sensitivity together with the possibility of enhancing specifically cellwall signals and improving resolution really opens new avenues for the use of DNP-enhanced solid-state NMR as an on-cell investigation tool. (authors)

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) enhanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has recently emerged as a powerful technique for the study of material surfaces. In this study, we demonstrate its potential to investigate cell surface in intact cells. Using Bacillus subtilis bacterial cells as an example, it is shown that the polarizing agent 1-(TEMPO-4-oxy)-3-(TEMPO-4-amino)propan-2-ol (TOTAPOL) has a strong binding affinity to cellwall polymers (peptidoglycan). This particular interaction is thoroughly investigated with a systematic study on extracted cellwall materials, disrupted cells, and entire cells, which proved that TOTAPOL is mainly accumulating in the cellwall. This property is used on one hand to selectively enhance or suppress cellwall signals by controlling radical concentrations and on the other hand to improve spectral resolution by means of a difference spectrum. Comparing DNP-enhanced and conventional solid-state NMR, an absolute sensitivity ratio of 24 was obtained on the entire cell sample. This important increase in sensitivity together with the possibility of enhancing specifically cellwall signals and improving resolution really opens new avenues for the use of DNP-enhanced solid-state NMR as an on-cell investigation tool.

Eukaryotic development and stem cell control depend on the integration of cell positional sensing with cell cycle control and cellwall positioning, yet few factors that directly link these events are known. The DEFECTIVE KERNEL1 (DEK1) gene encoding the unique plant calpain protein is fundamental f...

Artificial vessel wall cultures, constructed by growing arterial endothelial cells on preformed layers of rat smooth muscle cells, were used to evaluate the effects of X-irradiation on tumor cell-induced tissue degradation. Bovine endothelial cells had radiation sensitivities similar to those of rat smooth muscle cells. Preirradiation of smooth muscle cells, before the addition of human fibrosarcoma (HT 1080) cells, did not increase the rate of degradation and destruction by the invasive cells. However, the degradation rate was decreased if the cultures were irradiated after the addition of HT 1080 cells. The presence of bovine endothelial cells markedly inhibited the destructive abilities of fibrosarcoma cells, but preirradiation of artificial vessel walls substantially decreased their capabilities to resist HT 1080-induced lysis. These findings suggest that the abilities of blood vessels to limit extravasation may be compromised by ionizing radiation

Three cellwall-associated protein antigens (antigens b, c, and d) were isolated from mutanolysin-solubilized cellwalls of Streptococcus salivarius HB and purified to apparent homogeneity by a combination of ion-exchange chromatography, gel filtration, and immunoadsorption chromatography. Antigens b and c were also isolated from culture supernatants. Antigen b consisted of more than 80% protein and had an apparent molecular weight as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel el...

The mycelia of Neurospora crassa grown in the presence of high concentrations of copper were blue in color, but only on a medium containing inorganic nitrate and phosphate as the nitrogen and phosphate sources, respectively. The cellwall isolate of the blue mycelia contained large amounts (12%) of copper and higher amounts of chitosan, phosphate, and amino groups, with a 42% decrease in the chitin content. Although all the glucosamine of the cellwall of control cultures could be released wi...

To determine the properties of Staphylococcus aureus contributing to its pyrogenicity, we compared, in human monocytes, endogenous pyrogen production stimulated by heat-killed S. aureus with that stimulated by purified S. aureus cellwalls or by particulate peptidoglycan prepared from the same strain. Peptidoglycan, but not the purified cellwall preparation, was found comparable to S. aureus as an endogenous pyrogen stimulus. This finding was associated with a more effective monocyte phagocy...

Full Text Available Bacterial cell growth and division require coordinated cellwall hydrolysis and synthesis, allowing for the removal and expansion of cellwall material. Without proper coordination, unchecked hydrolysis can result in cell lysis. How these opposing activities are simultaneously regulated is poorly understood. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the resuscitation-promoting factor B (RpfB, a lytic transglycosylase, interacts and synergizes with Rpf-interacting protein A (RipA, an endopeptidase, to hydrolyze peptidoglycan. However, it remains unclear what governs this synergy and how it is coordinated with cellwall synthesis. Here we identify the bifunctional peptidoglycan-synthesizing enzyme, penicillin binding protein 1 (PBP1, as a RipA-interacting protein. PBP1, like RipA, localizes both at the poles and septa of dividing cells. Depletion of the ponA1 gene, encoding PBP1 in M. smegmatis, results in a severe growth defect and abnormally shaped cells, indicating that PBP1 is necessary for viability and cellwall stability. Finally, PBP1 inhibits the synergistic hydrolysis of peptidoglycan by the RipA-RpfB complex in vitro. These data reveal a post-translational mechanism for regulating cellwall hydrolysis and synthesis through protein-protein interactions between enzymes with antagonistic functions.

Transfer cells are plant cells specialized in apoplast/symplast transport and characterized by a distinctive wall labyrinth apparatus. The molecular architecture and biochemistry of the labyrinth apparatus are poorly known. The leaf lamina in the aquatic angiosperm Elodea canadensis consists of only two cell layers, with the abaxial cells developing as transfer cells. The present study investigated biochemical properties of wall ingrowths and associated plasmalemma in these cells. Leaves of Elodea were examined by light and electron microscopy and ATPase activity was localized cytochemically. Immunogold electron microscopy was employed to localize carbohydrate epitopes associated with major cellwall polysaccharides and glycoproteins. The plasmalemma associated with the wall labyrinth is strongly enriched in light-dependent ATPase activity. The wall ingrowths and an underlying wall layer share an LM11 epitope probably associated with glucuronoarabinoxylan and a CCRC-M7 epitope typically associated with rhamnogalacturonan I. No labelling was observed with LM10, an antibody that recognizes low-substituted and unsubstituted xylan, a polysaccharide consistently associated with secondary cellwalls. The JIM5 and JIM7 epitopes, associated with homogalacturonan with different degrees of methylation, appear to be absent in the wall labyrinth but present in the rest of cellwalls. The wall labyrinth apparatus of leaf transfer cells in Elodea is a specialized structure with distinctive biochemical properties. The high level of light-dependent ATPase activity in the plasmalemma lining the wall labyrinth is consistent with a formerly suggested role of leaf transfer cells in enhancing inorganic carbon inflow. The wall labyrinth is a part of the primary cellwall. The discovery that the wall ingrowths in Elodea have an antibody-binding pattern divergent, in part, from that of the rest of cellwall suggests that their carbohydrate composition is modulated in relation to transfer

A substantial proportion of the architecture of the plant cellwall remains unknown with a few cellwall models being proposed. Moreover, even less is known about the green algal cellwall. Techniques that allow direct visualization of the cellwall in as near to its native state are of importance in unravelling the spatial arrangement of cellwall structures and hence in the development of cellwall models. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to image the native cellwall of living cells of Ventricaria ventricosa (V. ventricosa) at high resolution under physiological conditions. The cellwall polymers were identified mainly qualitatively via their structural appearance. The cellulose microfibrils (CMFs) were easily recognizable and the imaging results indicate that the V. ventricosa cellwall has a cross-fibrillar structure throughout. We found the native wall to be abundant in matrix polysaccharides existing in different curing states. The soft phase matrix polysaccharides susceptible by the AFM scanning tip existed as a glutinous fibrillar meshwork, possibly incorporating both the pectic- and hemicellulosic-type substances. The hard phase matrix producing clearer images, revealed coiled fibrillar structures associated with CMFs, sometimes being resolved as globular structures by the AFM tip. The coiling fibrillar structures were also seen in the images of isolated cellwall fragments. The mucilaginous component of the wall was discernible from the gelatinous cellwall matrix as it formed microstructural domains over the surface. AFM has been successful in imaging the native cellwall and revealing novel findings such as the 'coiling fibrillar structures' and cellwall components which have previously not been seen, that is, the gelatinous matrix phase.

Ionically bound cellwall proteins were extracted from 7 day old etiolated pea (Pisum sativum L. cv Alaska) epicotyls with 3 molar LiCl. Polyclonal antiserum was raised in rabbits against the cellwall proteins. Growth assays showed that treatment of growing region segments (5-7 millimeters) of peas with either dialyzed serum, serum globulin fraction, affinity purified immunoglobulin, or papain-cleaved antibody fragments had no effect on growth. Immunofluorescence microscopy confirmed antibody binding to cellwalls and penetration of the antibodies into the tissues. Western blot analysis, immunoassay results, and affinity chromatography utilizing Sepharose-bound antibodies confirmed recognition of the protein preparation by the antibodies. Experiments employing in vitro extension as a screening measure indicated no effect upon extension by antibodies, by 50 millimolar LiCl perfusion of the apoplast or by 3 molar LiCl extraction. Addition of cellwall protein to protease pretreated segments did not restore extension nor did addition of cellwall protein to untreated segments increase extension. It is concluded that, although evidence suggests that protein is responsible for the process of extension, the class(es) of proteins which are extracted from pea cellwalls with 3 molar LiCl are probably not involved in this process.

Global warming and the consequent climate change is one of the major environmental challenges we are facing today. The driving force behind the rise in temperature is our fossil-based economy, which releases massive amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emission, we need to scale down our dependency on fossil resources, implying that we need other sources for energy and chemicals to feed our economy. Here, plants have an important role to play; by means of photosynthesis, plants capture solar energy to split water and fix carbon derived from atmospheric carbon dioxide. A significant fraction of the fixed carbon ends up as polysaccharides in the plant cellwall. Fermentable sugars derived from cellwall polysaccharides form an ideal carbon source for the production of bio-platform molecules. However, a major limiting factor in the use of plant biomass as feedstock for the bio-based economy is the complexity of the plant cellwall and its recalcitrance towards deconstruction. To facilitate the release of fermentable sugars during downstream biomass processing, the composition and structure of the cellwall can be engineered. Different strategies to reduce cellwall recalcitrance will be described in this review. The ultimate goal is to obtain a tailor-made biomass, derived from plants with a cellwall optimized for particular industrial or agricultural applications, without affecting plant growth and development. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

An eco-friendly cellwall digestion strategy was developed to enhance the availability of nutritionally important bio molecules of edible microalgae and exploit them for cloning, transformation, and expression of therapeutic proteins. Microalgae are the source for many nutritionally important bioactive compounds and potential drugs. Even though edible microalgae are rich in nutraceutical, bioavailability of all these molecules is very less due to their rigid recalcitrant cellwall. For example, the cellwall of Scenedesmus quadricauda CASA CC202 is made up of three layers comprising of rigid outer pectin and inner cellulosic layer separated by a thin middle layer. In the present investigation, a comprehensive method has been developed for the selective degradation of S. quadricauda CASA CC202 cellwall, by employing both mechanical and enzymatic treatments. The efficiency of cellwall removal was evaluated by measuring total reducing sugar (TRS), tannic acid-ferric chloride staining, calcoflour white staining, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. It was confirmed that the yield of TRS increased from 129.82 mg/g in 14 h from pectinase treatment alone to 352.44 mg/g by combined sonication and enzymatic treatment within 12 h. As a result, the combination method was found to be effective for the selective degradation of S. quadricauda CASA CC202 cellwall. This study will form a base for our future works, where this will help to enhance the digestibility and availability of nutraceutically important proteins.

One of the first physical defences of plants against fungal infection is their cellwall. Interaction between combinations of metabolism enzymes known as the “weapons” of pathogen and the host cellwall probably determines the fate of possible invasion of the pathogen in the host. The present work aims to study the biochemical changes of cellwall lipids of oil palm roots and to determine novel information on root cellwall composition during pathogenesis of Ganoderma boninense by using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry. Based on Total Ion Chromatogram analysis, 67 compounds were found more abundant in the roots infected with G. boninense compared to the healthy roots (60 compounds). Interestingly, nine new compounds were identified from the cellwall lipids of roots infected with G. boninense. These includes Cyclohexane, 1,2-dimethyl-, Methyl 2-hydroxy 16-methyl-heptadecanoate, 2-Propenoic acid, methyl ester, Methyl 9-oxohexacosanoate, 5-[(3,7,11,15-Tetramethylhexadecyl)oxy]thiophene-2carboxylic acid, Ergosta-5,7,22,24(28)-tetraen-3beta-ol, 7-Hydroxy-3',4'-methylenedioxyflavan, Glycine and (S)-4'-Hydroxy-4-methoxydalbergione, this may involve as response to pathogen invasion. This paper provides an original comparative lipidomic analysis of oil palm roots cellwall lipids in plant defence during pathogenesis of G. boninense.

Sucrose synthase (Sus; EC 2.4.1.13) is a key enzyme of sucrose metabolism in plant cells, providing carbon for respiration and for the synthesis of cellwall polymers and starch. Since Sus is important for plant cell growth, insights into its structure, localization, and features are useful for

The peptidoglycan cellwall and the actin-like MreB cytoskeleton are major determinants of cell shape in rod-shaped bacteria. The prevailing model postulates that helical, membrane-associated MreB filaments organize elongation-specific peptidoglycan-synthesizing complexes along sidewalls. We used total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to visualize the dynamic relation between MreB isoforms and cellwall synthesis in live Bacillus subtilis cells. During exponential growth, MreB proteins did not form helical structures. Instead, together with other morphogenetic factors, they assembled into discrete patches that moved processively along peripheral tracks perpendicular to the cell axis. Patch motility was largely powered by cellwall synthesis, and MreB polymers restricted diffusion of patch components in the membrane and oriented patch motion.

Cellwall materials derived from leaves and hypocotyls of Arabidopsis mutant and wild type plants have been incubated with a mixture of pure and well-defined pectinases, hemicellulases, and cellulases. The resulting oligosaccharides have been subjected to MALDI-TOF MS and CE-LIF analysis. MALDI-TOF

In Aspergillus niger, the genes coding for glutamine:fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase (gfaA) and ¿-1,3-glucan synthase (agsA) are induced in response to cellwall stress. In silico analysis of the promoter region of the two genes revealed the presence of putative DNA binding sites for

Plant organs are produced from meristems in a characteristic pattern. This pattern, referred to as phyllotaxis, is thought to be generated by local gradients of an information molecule, auxin. Some studies propose a key role for the mechanical properties of the cellwalls in the control of organ outgrowth. A major cell-wall component is the linear alpha-1-4-linked D-GalAp pectic polysaccharide homogalacturonan (HG), which plays a key role in cell-to-cell cohesion. HG is deposited in the cellwall in a highly (70%-80%) methyl-esterified form and is subsequently de-methyl-esterified by pectin methyl-esterases (PME, EC 3.1.1.11). PME activity is itself regulated by endogenous PME inhibitor (PMEI) proteins. PME action modulates cell-wall-matrix properties and plays a role in the control of cell growth. Here, we show that the formation of flower primordia in the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem is accompanied by the de-methyl-esterification of pectic polysaccharides in the cellwalls. In addition, experimental perturbation of the methyl-esterification status of pectins within the meristem dramatically alters the phyllotactic pattern. These results demonstrate that regulated de-methyl-esterification of pectins is a key event in the outgrowth of primordia and possibly also in phyllotactic patterning.

Full Text Available Fungi are surrounded by an essential structure, the cellwall, which not only confers cell shape but also protects cells from environmental stress. As a consequence, yeast cells growing under cellwall damage conditions elicit rescue mechanisms to provide maintenance of cellular integrity and fungal survival. Through transcriptional reprogramming, yeast modulate the expression of genes important for cellwall biogenesis and remodeling, metabolism and energy generation, morphogenesis, signal transduction and stress. The yeast cellwall integrity (CWI pathway, which is very well conserved in other fungi, is the key pathway for the regulation of this adaptive response. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the yeast transcriptional program elicited to counterbalance cellwall stress situations, the role of the CWI pathway in the regulation of this program and the importance of the transcriptional input received by other pathways. Modulation of this adaptive response through the CWI pathway by positive and negative transcriptional feedbacks is also discussed. Since all these regulatory mechanisms are well conserved in pathogenic fungi, improving our knowledge about them will have an impact in the developing of new antifungal therapies.

Full Text Available Genetic causes for autosomal recessive forms of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM are only rarely identified, although they are thought to contribute considerably to sudden cardiac death and heart failure, especially in young children. Here, we describe 11 young patients (5-13 years with a predominant presentation of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM. Metabolic investigations showed deficient protein N-glycosylation, leading to a diagnosis of Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG. Homozygosity mapping in the consanguineous families showed a locus with two known genes in the N-glycosylation pathway. In all individuals, pathogenic mutations were identified in DOLK, encoding the dolichol kinase responsible for formation of dolichol-phosphate. Enzyme analysis in patients' fibroblasts confirmed a dolichol kinase deficiency in all families. In comparison with the generally multisystem presentation in CDG, the nonsyndromic DCM in several individuals was remarkable. Investigation of other dolichol-phosphate dependent glycosylation pathways in biopsied heart tissue indicated reduced O-mannosylation of alpha-dystroglycan with concomitant functional loss of its laminin-binding capacity, which has been linked to DCM. We thus identified a combined deficiency of protein N-glycosylation and alpha-dystroglycan O-mannosylation in patients with nonsyndromic DCM due to autosomal recessive DOLK mutations.

The enzyme mannosyl-3-phosphoglycerate synthase from R. xylanophilus has been expressed, purified and crystallized. The crystals belong to the hexagonal space group P6 5 22 and diffract to 2.2 Å resolution. Rubrobacter xylanophilus is the only Gram-positive bacterium known to synthesize the compatible solute mannosylglycerate (MG), which is commonly found in hyperthermophilic archaea and some thermophilic bacteria. Unlike the salt-dependent pattern of accumulation observed in (hyper)thermophiles, in R. xylanophilus MG accumulates constitutively. The synthesis of MG in R. xylanophilus was tracked from GDP-mannose and 3-phosphoglycerate, but the genome sequence of the organism failed to reveal any of the genes known to be involved in this pathway. The native enzyme was purified and its N-terminal sequence was used to identify the corresponding gene (mpgS) in the genome of R. xylanophilus. The gene encodes a highly divergent mannosyl-3-phosphoglycerate synthase (MpgS) without relevant sequence homology to known mannosylphosphoglycerate synthases. In order to understand the specificity and enzymatic mechanism of this novel enzyme, it was expressed in Escherichia coli, purified and crystallized. The crystals thus obtained belonged to the hexagonal space group P6 5 22 and contained two protein molecules per asymmetric unit. The structure was solved by SIRAS using a mercury derivative

A honeycomb core is a discontinuous material with a thin-wall structure—a characteristic that makes accurate surface measurement difficult. This paper presents a cellwall detection method based on the Harris corner detection algorithm using laser measurement data. The vertexes of honeycomb cores are recognized with two different methods: one method is the reduction of data density, and the other is the optimization of the threshold of the Harris corner detection algorithm. Each cellwall is then identified in accordance with the neighboring relationships of its vertexes. Experiments were carried out for different types and surface shapes of honeycomb cores, where the proposed method was proved effective in dealing with noise due to burrs and/or deformation of cellwalls.

Cryptococcus neoformans is an environmental fungus that belongs to the phylum Basidiomycetes and is a major pathogen in immunocompromised patients. The ability of C. neoformans to produce melanin pigments represents its second most important virulence factor, after the presence of a polysaccharide capsule. Both the capsule and melanin are closely associated with the fungal cellwall, a complex structure that is essential for maintaining cell morphology and viability under conditions of stress. The amino sugar N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) is a key constituent of the cell-wall chitin and is used for both N-linked glycosylation and GPI anchor synthesis. Recent studies have suggested additional roles for GlcNAc as an activator and mediator of cellular signalling in fungal and plant cells. Furthermore, chitin and chitosan polysaccharides interact with melanin pigments in the cellwall and have been found to be essential for melanization. Despite the importance of melanin, its molecular structure remains unresolved; however, we previously obtained critical insights using advanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and imaging techniques. In this study, we investigated the effect of GlcNAc supplementation on cryptococcal cell-wall composition and melanization. C. neoformans was able to metabolize GlcNAc as a sole source of carbon and nitrogen, indicating a capacity to use a component of a highly abundant polymer in the biospherenutritionally. C. neoformans cells grown with GlcNAc manifested changes in the chitosan cell-wall content, cell-wall thickness and capsule size. Supplementing cultures with isotopically 15 N-labelled GlcNAc demonstrated that the exogenous monomer serves as a building block for chitin/chitosan and is incorporated into the cellwall. The altered chitin-to-chitosan ratio had no negative effects on the mother-daughter cell separation; growth with GlcNAc affected the fungal cell-wall scaffold, resulting in increased melanin deposition and assembly. In

Full Text Available Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of extracted cellwalls from Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus paracasei as probiotic bacteria (isolated from common carp intestine on K562 and the role of cell concentration on the results of MTT [3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl2,5- Diphenyl tetrazolium Bromide] test.Methods: For this purpose, bacteria were cultured in specific medium (MRS broth at anaerobic condition for 24-48 hour. After incubation period culture medium was centri-fuged, then the cells were washed twice with PBS buffer to remove additional medium. Finally, collected bacterial cell disrupted by Sonication and cellwalls were separated from other components by centrifugation. After that, different concentrations of cellwalls (500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 µg/ml were prepared in RPMI medium for each bacteria, separately. Then anticancer properties of the cellwalls were determined in vitro at 12, 24, 48 and 72 h, also the effect of K562 concentration was assayed with MTT technique.Results: The results showed extracted cellwall from both probiotic statistically (P=0.098 have anti turmeric properties in K562 and their properties will arise in relation with concentration. As well as, we found that the number of cell had not any affect on the result of MTT assay.Conclusion: We conclude that the cytotoxicity property of extracted cellwall is related in the type of bacteria, but this anticancer property would warrant further study on the clinical application of extracted cellwall.

Technetium-99m-labeled benzoyl-mercaptoacetylglycylglycyl-glycine-mannosyl-dextran ([ 99m Tc]MAG 3 -mannosyl-dextran) is a receptor-binding radiotracer that binds to mannose-binding protein, a receptor expressed by reticuloendothelial tissue. This agent is composed of a 10.5-kilodalton molecule of dextran and multiple units of mannose, and benzoyl-mercaptoacetylglycylglycyl-glycine (BzMAG 3 ). The tetraflorophenol-activated ester of BzMAG 3 and the imidate of thiomannose were used to covalently attach BzMAG 3 and mannose to an amino-terminated conjugate of dextran. This yielded a 19-kilodalton macromolecule consisting of 3 BzMAG 3 and 21 mannose units per dextran. Dynamic light scattering was used to measure a mean diameter of 5.5 nanometers for BzMAG 3 -mannosyl-dextran and 0.28 microns for filtered Tc-99m sulfur colloid. A preliminary sentinel node detection study employing right fore and hind footpad injections of [ 99m Tc]MAG 3 -mannosyl-dextran and left fore and hind footpad injections of filtered Tc-99m sulfur colloid demonstrated greater sentinel lymph node uptake by the receptor-binding agent

Full Text Available Abstract Background Inorganic polyphosphate (poly P, linear chains of phosphate residues linked by energy rich phosphoanhydride bonds, is found in every cell and organelle and is abundant in algae. Depending on its localization and concentration, poly P is involved in various biological functions. It serves, for example, as a phosphate store and buffer against alkali, is involved in energy metabolism and regulates the activity of enzymes. Bacteria defective in poly P synthesis are impaired in biofilm development, motility and pathogenicity. PolyP has also been found in fungal cellwalls and bacterial envelopes, but has so far not been measured directly or stained specifically in the cellwall of any plant or alga. Results Here, we demonstrate the presence of poly P in the cellwall of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii by staining with specific poly P binding proteins. The specificity of the poly P signal was verified by various competition experiments, by staining with different poly P binding proteins and by correlation with biochemical quantification. Microscopical investigation at different time-points during growth revealed fluctuations of the poly P signal synchronous with the cell cycle: The poly P staining peaked during late cytokinesis and was independent of the high intracellular poly P content, which fluctuated only slightly during the cell cycle. Conclusion The presented staining method provides a specific and sensitive tool for the study of poly P in the extracellular matrices of algae and could be used to describe the dynamic behaviour of cellwall poly P during the cell cycle. We assume that cellwall poly P and intracellular poly P are regulated by distinct mechanisms and it is suggested that cellwall bound poly P might have important protective functions against toxic compounds or pathogens during cytokinesis, when cells are more vulnerable.

Leucine-rich repeat extensins (LRXs) are extracellular proteins consisting of an N-terminal leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain and a C-terminal extensin domain containing the typical features of this class of structural hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins (HRGPs). The LRR domain is likely to bind an interaction partner, whereas the extensin domain has an anchoring function to insolubilize the protein in the cellwall. Based on the analysis of the root hair-expressed LRX1 and LRX2 of Arabidopsis thaliana, LRX proteins are important for cellwall development. The importance of LRX proteins in non-root hair cells and on the structural changes induced by mutations in LRX genes remains elusive. The LRX gene family of Arabidopsis consists of eleven members, of which LRX3, LRX4, and LRX5 are expressed in aerial organs, such as leaves and stem. The importance of these LRX genes for plant development and particularly cellwall formation was investigated. Synergistic effects of mutations with gradually more severe growth retardation phenotypes in double and triple mutants suggest a similar function of the three genes. Analysis of cellwall composition revealed a number of changes to cellwall polysaccharides in the mutants. LRX3, LRX4, and LRX5, and most likely LRX proteins in general, are important for cellwall development. Due to the complexity of changes in cellwall structures in the lrx mutants, the exact function of LRX proteins remains to be determined. The increasingly strong growth-defect phenotypes in double and triple mutants suggests that the LRX proteins have similar functions and that they are important for proper plant development.

Full Text Available Bacterial cell possess a cellwall, which is a main difference from mammalian cells. Its basic function is to provide the strength of bacteria, keeps its shape and provides an unusually high internal osmotic pressure. Synthesis of (construction of bacterial cellwall occurs in at least three phases. All of these three phases can be influence by a variety of antibiotics in way to inhibit its synthesis. The most important drugs that act in this manner are ß-lactam antibiotics (penicillins, cephalosporins, cephamycins and other ß-lactams. They interfere with the synthesis of the bacterial cellwall peptidoglycan. After attachment to penicillin binding proteins (PBP on bacteria, they inhibit the transpeptidation enzyme that cross-links the peptide chain attached to the backbone of the peptidoglycan. The final bactericidal event is the inactivation of an inhibitor of autolytic enzymes in the cellwall, wich leads to lysis of the bacteria. Vancomycin inhibits the release of the building block unit from the carrier, thus preventing its addition to the growing end of the peptidoglycan. Cycloserine, which is a structural analogue of D-alanine, prevents the addition of the two terminal alanine residue to the initial tripeptide side-chain on N-acetylmuramic acid by competitive inhibition. Bacitracin interferes with the regeneration of the lipid carrier by blocking its dephosphorylation. Key words: bacterial cellwall, paptidoglycan, antibiotics, ß-lactams

Full Text Available Lactic acid bacteria (LAB are Gram positive bacteria widely used in the production of fermented food in particular cheese and yoghurts. Bacteriophage infections during fermentation processes have been for many years a major industrial concern and have stimulated numerous research efforts. Better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of bacteriophage interactions with their host bacteria is required for the development of efficient strategies to fight against infections. The bacterial cellwall plays key roles in these interactions. First, bacteriophages must adsorb at the bacterial surface through specific interactions with receptors that are cellwall components. At next step, phages must overcome the barrier constituted by cellwall peptidoglycan to inject DNA inside bacterial cell. Also at the end of the infection cycle, phages synthesize endolysins able to hydrolyze peptidoglycan and lyse bacterial cells to release phage progeny. In the last decade, concomitant development of genomics and structural analysis of cellwall components allowed considerable advances in the knowledge of their structure and function in several model LAB. Here, we describe the present knowledge on the structure of the cellwall glycopolymers of the best characterized LAB emphasizing their structural variations and we present the available data regarding their role in bacteria-phage specific interactions at the different steps of the infection cycle.

Full Text Available Chlorhexidine is a chlorinated phenolic disinfectant used commonly in mouthwash for its action against bacteria. However, a comparative study of the action of chlorhexidine on the cell morphology of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria is lacking. In this study, the actions of chlorhexidine on the cell morphology were identified with the aids of electron microscopy. After exposure to chlorhexidine, numerous spots of indentation on the cellwall were found in both Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli. The number of indentation spots increased with time of incubation and increasing chlorhexidine concentration. Interestingly, the dented spots found in B. subtilis appeared mainly at the hemispherical caps of the cells, while in E. coli the dented spots were found all over the cells. After being exposed to chlorhexidine for a prolonged period, leakage of cellular contents and subsequent ghost cells were observed, especially from B subtilis. By using 2-D gel/MS-MS analysis, five proteins related to purine nucleoside interconversion and metabolism were preferentially induced in the cellwall of E. coli, while three proteins related to stress response and four others in amino acid biosynthesis were up-regulated in the cellwall materials of B. subtilis. The localized morphological damages together with the biochemical and protein analysis of the chlorhexidine-treated cells suggest that chlorhexidine may act on the differentially distributed lipids in the cell membranes/wall of B. subtilis and E. coli.

Coccoid green algae can be divided in two groups based on their cellwall structure. One group has a highly chemical resistant cellwall (HR-cellwall) containing algaenan. The other group is more susceptible to chemicals (LR-cellwall - Low resistant cellwall). Algaenan is considered as important molecule to explain cellwall resistance. Interestingly, cellwall types (LR- and HR-cellwall) are not in accordance with the taxonomic classes Chlorophyceae and Trebouxiophyceae, which makes it even more interesting to consider the ecological function. It was already shown that algaenan helps to protect against virus, bacterial and fungal attack, but in this study we show for the first time that green algae with different cellwall properties show different sensitivity against interference competition with the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa . Based on previous work with co-cultures of M. aeruginosa and two green algae ( Acutodesmus obliquus and Oocystis marssonii ) differing in their cellwall structure, it was shown that M. aeruginosa could impair only the growth of the green algae if they belong to the LR-cellwall type. In this study it was shown that the sensitivity to biotic interference mechanism shows a more general pattern within coccoid green algae species depending on cellwall structure.

Classic cellwall components of fungi comprise the polysaccharides glucans and chitin, in association with glycoproteins and pigments. During the last decade, however, system biology approaches clearly demonstrated that the composition of fungal cellwalls include atypical molecules historically associated with intracellular or membrane locations. Elucidation of mechanisms by which many fungal molecules are exported to the extracellular space suggested that these atypical components are transitorily located to the cellwall. The presence of extracellular vesicles (EVs) at the fungal cellwall and in culture supernatants of distinct pathogenic species suggested a highly functional mechanism of molecular export in these organisms. Thus, the passage of EVs through fungal cellwalls suggests remarkable molecular diversity and, consequently, a potentially variable influence on the host antifungal response. On the basis of information derived from the proteomic characterization of fungal EVs from the yeasts Cryptoccocus neoformans and Candida albicans and the dimorphic fungi Histoplasma capsulatum and Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, our manuscript is focused on the clear view that the fungal cellwall is much more complex than previously thought.

Compared to other fungal pathogens, Cryptococcus neoformans is particularly adept at avoiding detection by innate immune cells. To explore fungal cellular features involved in immune avoidance, we characterized cell surface changes of the C. neoformans rim101Δ mutant, a strain that fails to organize and shield immunogenic epitopes from host detection. These cell surface changes are associated with an exaggerated, detrimental inflammatory response in mouse models of infection. We determined that the disorganized strain rim101Δ cellwall increases macrophage detection in a contact-dependent manner. Using biochemical and microscopy methods, we demonstrated that the rim101Δ strain shows a modest increase in the levels of both cellwall chitin and chitosan but that it shows a more dramatic increase in chito-oligomer exposure, as measured by wheat germ agglutinin staining. We also created a series of mutants with various levels of cellwall wheat germ agglutinin staining, and we demonstrated that the staining intensity correlates with the degree of macrophage activation in response to each strain. To explore the host receptors responsible for recognizing the rim101Δ mutant, we determined that both the MyD88 and CARD9 innate immune signaling proteins are involved. Finally, we characterized the immune response to the rim101Δ mutant in vivo, documenting a dramatic and sustained increase in Th1 and Th17 cytokine responses. These results suggest that the Rim101 transcription factor actively regulates the C. neoformans cellwall to prevent the exposure of immune stimulatory molecules within the host. These studies further explored the ways in which immune cells detect C. neoformans and other fungal pathogens by mechanisms that include sensing N-acetylglucosamine-containing structures, such as chitin and chitosan. Infectious microorganisms have developed many ways to avoid recognition by the host immune system. For example, pathogenic fungi alter their cell surfaces to

Growth of plant organs relies on cell proliferation and expansion. While an increasingly detailed picture about the control of cell proliferation is emerging, our knowledge about the control of cell expansion remains more limited. We demonstrate here that the internal-motor kinesin AtKINESIN-13A (AtKIN13A) limits cell expansion and cell size in Arabidopsis thaliana, with loss-of-function atkin13a mutants forming larger petals with larger cells. The homolog, AtKINESIN-13B, also affects cell expansion and double mutants display growth, gametophytic and early embryonic defects, indicating a redundant role of the two genes. AtKIN13A is known to depolymerize microtubules and influence Golgi motility and distribution. Consistent with this function, AtKIN13A interacts genetically with ANGUSTIFOLIA, encoding a regulator of Golgi dynamics. Reduced AtKIN13A activity alters cellwall structure as assessed by Fourier-transformed infrared-spectroscopy and triggers signalling via the THESEUS1-dependent cell-wall integrity pathway, which in turn promotes the excess cell expansion in the atkin13a mutant. Thus, our results indicate that the intracellular activity of AtKIN13A regulates cell expansion and wall architecture via THESEUS1, providing a compelling case of interplay between cellwall integrity sensing and expansion. PMID:25232944

Plant cellwalls are a complex cellular compartment essential for plant growth, development and response to biotic and abiotic stress and a major biological resource for meeting our future bioenergy and natural product needs. The goal of the 2009 Plant CellWalls Gordon Research Conference is to summarize and critically evaluate the current level of understanding of the structure, synthesis and function of the whole plant extracellular matrix, including the polysaccharides, proteins, lignin and waxes that comprise the wall, and the enzymes and regulatory proteins that drive wall synthesis and modification. Innovative techniques to study how both primary and secondary wall polymers are formed and modified throughout plant growth will be emphasized, including rapid advances taking place in the use of anti-wall antibodies and carbohydrate binding proteins, comparative and evolutionary wall genomics, and the use of mutants and natural variants to understand and identify wall structure-function relationships. Discussions of essential research advances needed to push the field forward toward a systems biology approach will be highlighted. The meeting will include a commemorative lecture in honor of the career and accomplishments of the late Emeritus Professor Bruce A. Stone, a pioneer in wall research who contributed over 40 years of outstanding studies on plant cellwall structure, function, synthesis and remodeling including emphasis on plant cellwall beta-glucans and arabinogalactans. The dwindling supply of fossil fuels will not suffice to meet our future energy and industrial product needs. Plant biomass is the renewable resource that will fill a large part of the void left by vanishing fossil fuels. It is therefore critical that basic research scientists interact closely with industrial researchers to critically evaluate the current state of knowledge regarding how plant biomass, which is largely plant cellwalls, is synthesized and utilized by the plant. A final

In recent years, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been considered potential biomedical materials because of their unique character. The aim of this study was to investigate the response of a human osteoblast-like cell line - Saos-2 - on single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) and multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs). The surface of a culture dish was coated with CNTs, and Saos-2 cells were cultured for three days. Cell morphology, viability, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, adhesion, and vinculin expression were evaluated. The result showed high cell viability and strong adhesion to MWCNTs. Saos-2 cultured on MWCNTs exhibited vinculin expression throughout the cell body, while the cells attached to SWCNTs and glass were mostly limited to their periphery. Our results suggest that CNT coatings promote cell activity and adhesiveness. These findings indicate that MWCNTs could be used as surface coating materials to promote cell adhesion.

Full Text Available Although α-1,3-glucan is a major cellwall polysaccharide in filamentous fungi, its biological functions remain unclear, except that it acts as a virulence factor in animal and plant pathogenic fungi: it conceals cellwall β-glucan on the fungal cell surface to circumvent recognition by hosts. However, cellwall α-1,3-glucan is also present in many of non-pathogenic fungi. Recently, the universal function of α-1,3-glucan as an aggregation factor has been demonstrated. Applications of fungi with modified cellwall α-1,3-glucan in the fermentation industry and of in vitro enzymatically-synthesized α-1,3-glucan in bio-plastics have been developed. This review focuses on the recent progress in our understanding of the biological functions and biosynthetic mechanism of cellwall α-1,3-glucan in fungi. We briefly consider the history of studies on α-1,3-glucan, overview its biological functions and biosynthesis, and finally consider the industrial applications of fungi deficient in α-1,3-glucan.

Healthy tea and tea infected by anthracnose were first studied by confocal Raman microscopy to illustrate chemical changes of cellwall in the present paper. Firstly, Raman spectra of both healthy and infected sample tissues were collected with spatial resolution at micron-level, and ultrastructure of healthy and infected tea cells was got from scanning electron microscope. These results showed that there were significant changes in Raman shift and Raman intensity between healthy and infected cellwalls, indicating that great differences occurred in chemical compositions of cellwalls between healthy and infected samples. In details, intensities at many Raman bands which were closely associated with cellulose, pectin, esters were reduced after infection, revealing that the content of chemical compounds such as cellulose, pectin, esters was decreased after infection. Subsequently, chemical imaging of both healthy and infected tea cellwalls were realized based on Raman fingerprint spectra of cellulose and microscopic spatial structure. It was found that not only the content of cellulose was reduced greatly after infection, but also the ordered structure of cellulose was destroyed by anthracnose infection. Thus, confocal Raman microscopy was shown to be a powerful tool to detect the chemical changes in cellwall of tea caused by anthracnose without any chemical treatment or staining. This research firstly applied confocal Raman microscopy in phytopathology for the study of interactive relationship between host and pathogen, and it will also open a new way for intensive study of host-pathogen at cellular level.

Full Text Available After being a matter of hot debate for years, the presence of lipid membranes in the last common ancestor of extant organisms (i.e., the cenancestor now begins to be generally accepted. By contrast, cenancestral cellwalls have attracted less attention, probably owing to the large diversity of cellwalls that exist in the three domains of life. Many prokaryotic cellwalls, however, are synthesized using glycosylation pathways with similar polyisoprenol lipid carriers and topology (i.e., orientation across the cell membranes. Here, we provide the first systematic phylogenomic report on the polyisoprenol biosynthesis pathways in the three domains of life. This study shows that, whereas the last steps of the polyisoprenol biosynthesis are unique to the respective domain of life of which they are characteristic, the enzymes required for basic unsaturated polyisoprenol synthesis can be traced back to the respective last common ancestor of each of the three domains of life. As a result, regardless of the topology of the tree of life that may be considered, the most parsimonious hypothesis is that these enzymes were inherited in modern lineages from the cenancestor. This observation supports the presence of an enzymatic mechanism to synthesize unsaturated polyisoprenols in the cenancestor and, since these molecules are notorious lipid carriers in glycosylation pathways involved in the synthesis of a wide diversity of prokaryotic cellwalls, it provides the first indirect evidence of the existence of a hypothetical unknown cellwall synthesis mechanism in the cenancestor.

The underlying mechanism of photoinhibition of stem elongation by blue (BL) and red light (RL) was studied in etiolated seedlings of pea (Pisum sativum L. cv Alaska). Brief BL irradiations resulted in fast transient inhibition of elongation, while a delayed (lag approximately 60 minutes) but prolonged inhibition was observed after brief RL. Possible changes in the hydraulic and wall properties of the growing cells during photoinhibition were examined. Cell sap osmotic pressure was unaffected by BL and RL, but both irradiations increased turgor pressure by approximately 0.05 megapascal (pressure-probe technique). Cellwall yielding was analyzed by in vivo stress relaxation (pressure-block technique). BL and RL reduced the initial rate of relaxation by 38 and 54%, while the final amount of relaxation was decreased by 48 and 10%, respectively. These results indicate that RL inhibits elongation mainly by lowering the wall yield coefficient, while most of the inhibitory effect of BL was due to an increase of the yield threshold. Mechanical extensibility of cellwalls (Instron technique) was decreased by BL and RL, mainly due to a reduction in the plastic component of extensibility. Thus, photoinhibitions of elongation by both BL and RL are achieved through changes in cellwall properties, and are not due to effects on the hydraulic properties of the cell.

Infrared microspectroscopy and immunolabeling techniques were employed in order to obtain deeper insight into the biochemical nature of aleurone cellwalls of wheat grain. The use of a synchrotron source, thanks to its intrinsic brightness, has provided unprecedented information at the level of a few micrometers and has allowed the discrimination of various polysaccharides in cellwalls. The high spectral quality obtained in the small analyzed domain has been beneficial in estimating the relative proportions of Β-glucan and arabinoxylan, through the use of principal component analysis (PCA). The highest amount of Β-glucan is found in periclinal cellwalls close to the starchy endosperm. The junction regions between aleurone cells are enriched in arabinoxylan. At the early stage of wheat grain development (271 degrees D), the chemical composition along the cellwalls is more heterogeneous than at the mature stage. Both synchrotron infrared microspectroscopy and immunolabeling experiments made it possible to reveal the spatial heterogeneity of the various chemical compositions of aleurone cellwalls.

Fusariosis, caused by the fungus Fusarium subglutinans f. sp. ananas (Syn. F. guttiforme), is one of the main phytosanitary threats to pineapple (Ananas comosus var. comosus). Identification of plant cell responses to pathogens is important in understanding the plant-pathogen relationship and establishing strategies to improve and select resistant cultivars. Studies of the structural properties and phenolic content of cellwalls in resistant (Vitoria) and susceptible (Perola) pineapple cultivars, related to resistance to the fungus, were performed. The non-chlorophyll base of physiologically mature leaves was inoculated with a conidia suspension. Analyses were performed post-inoculation by light, atomic force, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and measurement of cellwall-bound phenolic compounds. Non-inoculated leaves were used as controls to define the constitutive tissue characteristics. Analyses indicated that morphological differences, such as cellwall thickness, cicatrization process and lignification, were related to resistance to the pathogen. Atomic force microscopy indicated a considerable difference in the mechanical properties of the resistant and susceptible cultivars, with more structural integrity, associated with higher levels of cellwall-bound phenolics, found in the resistant cultivar. p-Coumaric and ferulic acids were shown to be the major phenolics bound to the cellwalls and were found in higher amounts in the resistant cultivar. Leaves of the resistant cultivar had reduced fungal penetration and a faster and more effective cicatrization response compared to the susceptible cultivar.

The chalcone synthase (CHS) gene controls the first step in the flavonoid biosynthesis. In flax, CHS down-regulation resulted in tannin accumulation and reduction in lignin synthesis, but plant growth was not affected. This suggests that lignin content and thus cellwall characteristics might be modulated through CHS activity. This study investigated the possibility that CHS affects cellwall sensing as well as polymer content and arrangement. CHS-suppressed and thus lignin-reduced plants showed significant changes in expression of genes involved in both synthesis of components and cellwall sensing. This was accompanied by increased levels of cellulose and hemicellulose. CHS-reduced flax also showed significant changes in morphology and arrangement of the cellwall. The stem tissue layers were enlarged averagely twofold compared to the control, and the number of fiber cells more than doubled. The stem morphology changes were accompanied by reduction of the crystallinity index of the cellwall. CHS silencing induces a signal transduction cascade that leads to modification of plant metabolism in a wide range and thus cellwall structure. PMID:27446124

in good quantities and with high purity. This review contains an overview of those plant and algal polysaccharides, which have been elucidated to date. The majority of the content is devoted to detailed summaries of the chemical syntheses of oligosaccharide fragments of cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin......Plant cellwalls are composed of an intricate network of polysaccharides and proteins that varies during the developmental stages of the cell. This makes it very challenging to address the functions of individual wall components in cells, especially for highly complex glycans. Fortunately...

MreB, the bacterial actin homologue, is thought to function in spatially co-ordinating cell morphogenesis in conjunction with MreC, a protein that wraps around the outside of the cell within the periplasmic space. In Caulobacter crescentus, MreC physically associates with penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) which catalyse the insertion of intracellularly synthesized precursors into the peptidoglycan cellwall. Here we show that MreC is required for the spatial organization of components of the peptidoglycan-synthesizing holoenzyme in the periplasm and MreB directs the localization of a peptidoglycan precursor synthesis protein in the cytosol. Additionally, fluorescent vancomycin (Van-FL) labelling revealed that the bacterial cytoskeletal proteins MreB and FtsZ, as well as MreC and RodA, were required for peptidoglycan synthetic activity. MreB and FtsZ were found to be required for morphogenesis of the polar stalk. FtsZ was required for a cell cycle-regulated burst of peptidoglycan synthesis early in the cell cycle resulting in the synthesis of cross-band structures, whereas MreB was required for lengthening of the stalk. Thus, the bacterial cytoskeleton and cell shape-determining proteins such as MreC, function in concert to orchestrate the localization of cellwall synthetic complexes resulting in spatially co-ordinated and efficient peptidoglycan synthetic activity.

PLGA NPs' cell uptake involves different endocytic pathways. Clathrin-independent endocytosis is the main internalization route. The cellwall plays a more prominent role than the plasma membrane in NPs' size selection. In the last years, many studies on absorption and cell uptake of nanoparticles by plants have been conducted, but the understanding of the internalization mechanisms is still largely unknown. In this study, polydispersed and monodispersed poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid nanoparticles (PLGA NPs) were synthesized, and a strategy combining the use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), confocal analysis, fluorescently labeled PLGA NPs, a probe for endocytic vesicles (FM4-64), and endocytosis inhibitors (i.e., wortmannin, ikarugamycin, and salicylic acid) was employed to shed light on PLGA NP cell uptake in grapevine cultured cells and to assess the role of the cellwall and plasma membrane in size selection of PLGA NPs. The ability of PLGA NPs to cross the cellwall and membrane was confirmed by TEM and fluorescence microscopy. A strong adhesion of PLGA NPs to the outer side of the cellwall was observed, presumably due to electrostatic interactions. Confocal microscopy and treatment with endocytosis inhibitors suggested the involvement of both clathrin-dependent and clathrin-independent endocytosis in cell uptake of PLGA NPs and the latter appeared to be the main internalization pathway. Experiments on grapevine protoplasts revealed that the cellwall plays a more prominent role than the plasma membrane in size selection of PLGA NPs. While the cellwall prevents the uptake of PLGA NPs with diameters over 50 nm, the plasma membrane can be crossed by PLGA NPs with a diameter of 500-600 nm.

A case is presented of a malignant granular cell tumour in a 52-year-old patient the initial location of which was the thoracic wall. After the tumour's removal there was recurrence in the lymph nodes, retroperitoneum, bone, lung and orbits. The important features of this case are its extraordinary rarity, the unusual location in the thoracic wall, and the tumour's infrequent malignancy. The radiological and histological findings are discussed, and the literature on the subject is reviewed. (orig.)

Morphology and structural integrity of fungal cells depend on cellwall polysaccharides. The chemical structure and biosynthesis of two types of these polysaccharides, chitin and (1-->3)-beta-glucan, have been studied extensively, whereas little is known about alpha-glucan. Here we describe the

Morphology and structural integrity of fungal cells depend on cellwall polysaccharides. The chemical structure and biosynthesis of two types of these polysaccharides, chitin and (1rarr3)-beta-glucan, have been studied extensively, whereas little is known about alpha-glucan. Here we describe the

The future hot cell is located in the Irradiated Material Experiment Facility (IMEF) at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). It is β-γ type hot cell that was constructed on the base floor in IMEF building for irradiated material testing. And this hot cell will be used for carrying out the Advanced spent fuel Conditioning Process (ACP). The radiation shielding capability of hot cell should be sufficient to meet the radiation dose requirements in the related regulations. Because the radioactive sources of ACP are expected to be higher than radioactive sources of IMEF design criteria, the future hot cell in current status is unsatisfactory to hot test of ACP. So the shielding analysis of the future hot cell is performed to evaluate shielding ability of concrete shield wall. The shielding analysis included (a) identification of ACP source term; (b) photon source spectrum; (c) shielding analysis by QADS and MCNP-4C; and (d) enhancement of concrete shield wall. In this research, dose rates are obtained according to ACP source, geometry and hot cell shield wall thickness. And the evaluation and reinforcement thickness of the shield wall about future hot cell are concluded

The pH within cellwall pores of filter paper fibers and hemp fibers was assessed by Fluorescence Ratio Imaging (FRIM). It was found that the Donnan effect affected the pH measured within the fibers. When the conductivity of the added liquid was low (0. 7 mS), pH values were lower within the cell...

For clinicians, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a nightmare pathogen that is one of the top three causes of opportunistic human infections. Therapy of P. aeruginosa infections is complicated due to its natural high intrinsic resistance to antibiotics. Active efflux and decreased uptake of drugs due to cellwall/membrane permeability appear to be important issues in the acquired antibiotic tolerance mechanisms. Bacterial cellwall biosynthesis enzymes have been shown to be essential for pathogenicity of Gram-negative bacteria. However, the role of these targets in virulence has not been identified in P. aeruginosa. Here, we report knockout (k.o) mutants of six cellwall biosynthesis targets (murA, PA4450; murD, PA4414; murF, PA4416; ppiB, PA1793; rmlA, PA5163; waaA, PA4988) in P. aeruginosa PAO1, and characterized these in order to find out whether these genes and their products contribute to pathogenicity and virulence of P. aeruginosa. Except waaA k.o, deletion of cellwall biosynthesis targets significantly reduced growth rate in minimal medium compared to the parent strain. The k.o mutants showed exciting changes in cell morphology and colonial architectures. Remarkably, ΔmurF cells became grossly enlarged. Moreover, the mutants were also attenuated in vivo in a mouse infection model except ΔmurF and ΔwaaA and proved to be more sensitive to macrophage-mediated killing than the wild-type strain. Interestingly, the deletion of the murA gene resulted in loss of virulence activity in mice, and the virulence was restored in a plant model by unknown mechanism. This study demonstrates that cellwall targets contribute significantly to intracellular survival, in vivo growth, and pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa. In conclusion, these findings establish a link between cellwall targets and virulence of P. aeruginosa and thus may lead to development of novel drugs for the treatment of P. aeruginosa infection.

Fine-tuning plant cellwall properties to render plant biomass more amenable to biofuel conversion is a colossal challenge. A deep knowledge of the biosynthesis and regulation of plant cellwall and a high-precision genome engineering toolset are the two essential pillars of efforts to alter plant cellwalls and reduce biomass recalcitrance. The past decade has seen a meteoric rise in use of transcriptomics and high-resolution imaging methods resulting in fresh insights into composition, structure, formation and deconstruction of plant cellwalls. Subsequent gene manipulation approaches, however, commonly include ubiquitous mis-expression of a single candidate gene in a host that carries an intact copy of the native gene. The challenges posed by pleiotropic and unintended changes resulting from such an approach are moving the field towards synthetic biology approaches. Synthetic biology builds on a systems biology knowledge base and leverages high-precision tools for high-throughput assembly of multigene constructs and pathways, precision genome editing and site-specific gene stacking, silencing and/or removal. Here, we summarize the recent breakthroughs in biosynthesis and remodelling of major secondary cellwall components, assess the impediments in obtaining a systems-level understanding and explore the potential opportunities in leveraging synthetic biology approaches to reduce biomass recalcitrance. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Plant Biotechnology Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The plasticity of lignin biosynthesis should permit the inclusion of new compatible phenolic monomers, such as rosmarinic acid (RA) and analogous catechol derivatives, into cell-wall lignins that are consequently less recalcitrant to biomass processing. In vitro lignin polymerization experiments revealed that RA readily underwent peroxidase-catalyzed copolymerization with monolignols and lignin oligomers to form polymers with new benzodioxane inter-unit linkages. Incorporation of RA permitted extensive depolymerization of synthetic lignins by mild alkaline hydrolysis, presumably by cleavage of ester intra-unit linkages within RA. Copolymerization of RA with monolignols into maize cellwalls by in situ peroxidases significantly enhanced alkaline lignin extractability and promoted subsequent cellwall saccharification by fungal enzymes. Incorporating RA also improved cellwall saccharification by fungal enzymes and by rumen microflora even without alkaline pretreatments, possibly by modulating lignin hydrophobicity and/or limiting cellwall cross-linking. Consequently, we anticipate that bioengineering approaches for partial monolignol substitution with RA and analogous plant hydroxycinnamates would permit more efficient utilization of plant fiber for biofuels or livestock production.

This paper, for the first time, fully characterizes the intrinsic physical parameters of hemp shiv including cellwall microstructure, pore size distribution and absolute density. Scanning electron microscopy revealed microstructural features similar to hardwoods. Confocal microscopy revealed three major layers in the cellwall: middle lamella, primary cellwall and secondary cellwall. Computed tomography improved the visualization of pore shape and pore connectivity in three dimensions. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) showed that the average accessible porosity was 76.67 ± 2.03% and pore size classes could be distinguished into micropores (3-10 nm) and macropores (0.1-1 µm and 20-80 µm). The absolute density was evaluated by helium pycnometry, MIP and Archimedes' methods. The results show that these methods can lead to misinterpretation of absolute density. The MIP method showed a realistic absolute density (1.45 g cm-3) consistent with the density of the known constituents, including lignin, cellulose and hemi-cellulose. However, helium pycnometry and Archimedes' methods gave falsely low values owing to 10% of the volume being inaccessible pores, which require sample pretreatment in order to be filled by liquid or gas. This indicates that the determination of the cellwall density is strongly dependent on sample geometry and preparation.

Corn stover is regarded as the prime candidate feedstock material for commercial biomass conversion in the United States. Variations in chemical composition of Zea mays cellwalls can affect biomass conversion process yields and economics. Mutant lines were constructed by activating a Mu transposon system. The cellwall chemical composition of 48 mutant families was characterized using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. NIR data were analyzed using a multivariate statistical analysis technique called Principal Component Analysis (PCA). PCA of the NIR data from 349 maize leaf samples reveals 57 individuals as outliers on one or more of six Principal Components (PCs) at the 95% confidence interval. Of these, 19 individuals from 16 families are outliers on either PC3 (9% of the variation) or PC6 (1% of the variation), the two PCs that contain information about cellwall polymers. Those individuals for which altered cellwall chemistry is confirmed with wet chemical analysis will then be subjected to fermentation analysis to determine whether or not biomass conversion process kinetics, yields and/or economics are significantly affected. Those mutants that provide indications for a decrease in process cost will be pursued further to identify the gene(s) responsible for the observed changes in cellwall composition and associated changes in process economics. These genes will eventually be incorporated into maize breeding programs directed at the development of a truly dual use crop.

Full Text Available The metabolic complexity of living organisms relies on supramolecular protein structures which ensure vital processes, such as signal transduction, transcription, translation and cellwall synthesis. In eukaryotes WD40-repeat (WDR proteins often function as molecular hubs mediating supramolecular interactions. WDR proteins may display a variety of interacting partners and participate in the assembly of complexes involved in distinct cellular functions. In plants, the formation of lignocellulosic biomass involves extensive synthesis of cellwall polysaccharides, a process that requires the assembly of large transmembrane enzyme complexes, intensive vesicle trafficking, interactions with the cytoskeleton, and coordinated gene expression. Because of their function as supramolecular hubs, WDR proteins could participate in each or any of these steps, although to date only few WDR proteins have been linked to the cellwall by experimental evidence. Nevertheless, several potential cellwall-related WDR proteins were recently identified using in silico aproaches, such as analyses of co-expression, interactome and conserved gene neighbourhood. Notably, some WDR genes are frequently genomic neighbours of genes coding for GT2-family polysaccharide synthases in eukaryotes, and this WDR-GT2 collinear microsynteny is detected in diverse taxa. In angiosperms, two WDR genes are collinear to cellulose synthase genes, CESAs, whereas in ascomycetous fungi several WDR genes are adjacent to chitin synthase genes, chs. In this Perspective we summarize and discuss experimental and in silico studies on the possible involvement of WDR proteins in plant cellwall formation. The prospects of biotechnological engineering for enhanced biomass production are discussed.

Fungal cellwalls frequently contain a polymer of mannose and galactose called galactomannan. In the pathogenic filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, this polysaccharide is made of a linear mannan backbone with side chains of galactofuran and is anchored to the plasma membrane via a glycosylphosphatidylinositol or is covalently linked to the cellwall. To date, the biosynthesis and significance of this polysaccharide are unknown. The present data demonstrate that deletion of the Golgi UDP-galactofuranose transporter GlfB or the GDP-mannose transporter GmtA leads to the absence of galactofuran or galactomannan, respectively. This indicates that the biosynthesis of galactomannan probably occurs in the lumen of the Golgi apparatus and thus contrasts with the biosynthesis of other fungal cellwall polysaccharides studied to date that takes place at the plasma membrane. Transglycosylation of galactomannan from the membrane to the cellwall is hypothesized because both the cellwall-bound and membrane-bound polysaccharide forms are affected in the generated mutants. Considering the severe growth defect of the A. fumigatus GmtA-deficient mutant, proving this paradigm might provide new targets for antifungal therapy.

Tritium behavior released in the ITER hot cell has been investigated numerically using a combined analytical methods of a tritium transport analysis in the multi-layer wall (concrete and epoxy paint) with the one dimensional diffusion model and a tritium concentration analysis in the hot cell with the complete mixing model by the ventilation. As the results, it is revealed that tritium concentration decay and permeation issues are not serious problem in a viewpoint of safety, since it is expected that tritium concentration in the hot cell decrease rapidly within several days just after removing the tritium release source, and tritium permeation through the epoxy painted concrete wall will be negligible as long as the averaged realistic diffusion coefficient is ensured in the concrete wall. It is also revealed that the epoxy paint on the concrete wall prevents the tritium inventory increase in the concrete wall greatly (two orders of magnitudes), but still, the inventory in the wall is estimated to reach about 0.1 PBq for 20 years operation

The matrix cellwall materials, in developing Zea mays stomatal complexes are asymmetrically distributed, a phenomenon appearing related to the local cellwall expansion and deformation, the establishment of cell polarity, and determination of the cell division plane. In cells of developing Zea mays stomatal complexes, definite cellwall regions expand determinately and become locally deformed. This differential cellwall behavior is obvious in the guard cell mother cells (GMCs) and the subsidiary cell mother cells (SMCs) that locally protrude towards the adjacent GMCs. The latter, emitting a morphogenetic stimulus, induce polarization/asymmetrical division in SMCs. Examination of immunolabeled specimens revealed that homogalacturonans (HGAs) with a high degree of de-esterification (2F4- and JIM5-HGA epitopes) and arabinogalactan proteins are selectively distributed in the extending and deformed cellwall regions, while their margins are enriched with rhamnogalacturonans (RGAs) containing highly branched arabinans (LM6-RGA epitope). In SMCs, the local cellwall matrix differentiation constitutes the first structural event, indicating the establishment of cell polarity. Moreover, in the premitotic GMCs and SMCs, non-esterified HGAs (2F4-HGA epitope) are preferentially localized in the cellwall areas outlining the cytoplasm where the preprophase band is formed. In these areas, the forthcoming cell plate fuses with the parent cellwalls. These data suggest that the described heterogeneity in matrix cellwall materials is probably involved in: (a) local cellwall expansion and deformation, (b) the transduction of the inductive GMC stimulus, and (c) the determination of the division plane in GMCs and SMCs.

Full Text Available Malting quality results from the different steps of the malting process. Malting uses internal changes of the seed occurring during germination, such as enzymes synthesis, to obtain a good hydrolysis process and the components required. Among the three main hydrolytic events observed, that are namely starch degradation, cellwall breakdown and protein hydrolysis, an efficient cellwall polysaccharides hydrolysis is an essential condition for a final product of quality. Indeed, because of the physical barrier of the cellwall, cellwall polysaccharides hydrolysis is one of the first steps expected from the process to gain access to the cell components. Moreover, viscosity problem and haze formation in malting industry are related to their presence during the process when inefficient degradation occurs, leading to increased production time and cost. Understanding the key elements in cellwall degradation is important for a better control. (1-3,1-4-β-glucans and arabinoxylans are the main constituents of cellwall. (1-3,1-4-β-glucans are unbranched chains of β-D-glucopyranose residues with β-(1,3 linkages and β-(1,4 linkages. Arabinoxylan consists in a backbone of D-xylanopyranosyl units linked by β-(1-4 bonds connected to single L-arabinofuranose by α-(1→2 or α-(1→3-linkages. Degradation of (1-3,1-4-β-glucans is processed by the (1-3,1-4-β-glucanases, the β-glucosidases and the β-glucane exohydrolases. It seems that the (1-3-β-glucanases are also involved. Arabinoxylans are mainly decomposed by (1-4-β-xylan endohydrolase, arabinofuranosidase and β-xylosidase.

Full Text Available G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs regulate a wide variety of physiological processes and are important pharmaceutical targets for drug discovery. Here, we describe a unique concept based on yeast cell-surface display technology to selectively track eligible peptides with agonistic activity for human GPCRs (CellWall Trapping of Autocrine Peptides (CWTrAP strategy. In our strategy, individual recombinant yeast cells are able to report autocrine-positive activity for human GPCRs by expressing a candidate peptide fused to an anchoring motif. Following expression and activation, yeast cells trap autocrine peptides onto their cellwalls. Because captured peptides are incapable of diffusion, they have no impact on surrounding yeast cells that express the target human GPCR and non-signaling peptides. Therefore, individual yeast cells can assemble the autonomous signaling complex and allow single-cell screening of a yeast population. Our strategy may be applied to identify eligible peptides with agonistic activity for target human GPCRs.

Full Text Available This experiment aimed at evaluating the effects of the interactions between aflatoxin (500 or 250 ppb and ochratoxin (500 or 250 ppb, and the possible benefits of adding yeast cellwall to prevent the effects of these mycotoxins in broiler chickens. Relative organ weight gain and live performance were evaluated at 21 and 42 days of age. Results indicated that at the levels of mycotoxins included in the experimental diets, ochratoxin reduced feed intake and body weight gain, and aflatoxin only affect feed intake of 21-day-old birds. No interaction was observed between aflatoxin and ochratoxin at the levels used in experimental study. Yeast cellwall did not significantly reduced the deleterious effects of ochratoxins. No significant differences were observed in relative organ weight gain. Yeast cellwall improved feed conversion ratio when birds were fed either contaminated or non-contaminated feeds.

Variations in cellwall chemistry provide vascular plants with the ability to withstand gravitational forces, as well as providing facile mechanisms for correctional responses to various gravitational stimuli, e.g., in reaction wood formation. A principal focus of our current research is to precisely and systematically dissect the essentially unknown mechanism(s) of vascular plant cellwall assembly, particularly with respect to formation of its phenolic constituents, i.e., lignins and suberins, and how gravity impacts upon these processes. Formation of these phenolic polymers is of particular interest, since it appears that elaboration of their biochemical pathways was essential for successful land adaptation. By extrapolation, we are also greatly intrigued as to how the microgravity environment impacts upon 'normal' cellwall assembly mechanisms/metabolism.

Brown algae are often used as heavy metal biomonitors and biosorbents because they can accumulate high concentrations of metals. Cation-exchange performed by cellwall polysaccharides is pointed out as the main chemical mechanism for the metal sequestration. Here, we biochemically investigated if the brown alga Padina gymnospora living in a heavy metal contaminated area would modify their polysaccharidic content. We exposed non-living biomass to Cd and Pb and studied the metals adsorption and localization. We found that raw dried polysaccharides, sulfate groups, uronic acids, fucose, mannose, and galactose were significantly higher in contaminated algae compared with the control ones. Metal concentrations adsorbed by non-living biomass were rising comparatively to the tested concentrations. Electron microscopy showed numerous granules in the cellwalls and X-ray microanalysis revealed Cd as the main element. We concluded that P. gymnospora overproduces cellwall polysaccharides when exposed to high metal concentrations as a defense mechanism.

different combinations of purified recombinant pectinases with cellwall profiling tools to follow the deconstruction process during winemaking. Multivariate data analysis of the glycan microarray (CoMPP) and gas chromatography (GC) results revealed that pectin lyase performed almost as effectively in de......The effectiveness of enzyme-mediated-maceration in red winemaking relies on the use of an optimum combination of specific enzymes. A lack of information on the relevant enzyme activities and the corresponding polysaccharide-rich berry cellwall structure is a major limitation. This study used......-pectination as certain commercial enzyme mixtures. Surprisingly the combination of endo-polygalacturonase and pectin-methyl-esterase only unraveled the cellwalls without de-pectination. Datasets from the various combinations used confirmed pectin-rich and xyloglucan-rich layers within the grape pomace. These data...

Full Text Available Proline is a proteogenic amino acid and accumulates both under stress and non-stress conditions as a beneficial solute in plants. Recent discoveries point out that proline plays an important role in plant growth and differentiation across life cycle. It is a key determinant of many cellwall proteins that plays important roles in plant development. The role of extensins (EXTs, arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs and hydroxyproline- and proline-rich proteins (H/PRPs as important components of cellwall proteins that play pivotal roles in cellwall signal transduction cascades, plant development and stress tolerance is discussed in this review. Molecular insights are also provided here into the plausible roles of proline transporters modulating key events in plant development. In addition, the roles of proline during seed developmental transitions including storage protein synthesis are discussed.

Cellulosic biomass is the most abundant raw material available for the production of renewable and sustainable biofuels. Breaking down cellulose is the rate-limiting step in economical biofuel production; therefore, a detailed understanding of the microscopic structure of plant cellwalls is required to develop efficient biofuel conversion methods. Primary cellwalls are key determinants of plant growth and mechanics. Their structure is complex and heterogeneous, making it difficult to elucidate how various components such as pectin, hemicellulose, and cellulose contribute to the overall structure. The electron density of these wall components is similar; such that conventional hard X-ray scattering does not generate enough contrast to resolve the different elements of the polysaccharide network. The chemical specificity of resonant soft X-ray scattering allows contrast to be generated based on differences in chemistry of the different polysaccharides. By varying incident X-ray energies, we have achieved increased scattering contrast between cellulose and other polysaccharides from primary cellwalls of onions. By performing scattering at certain energies, features of the network structure of the cellwall are resolved. From the soft X-ray scattering results, we obtained the packing distance of cellulose microfibrils embedded in the polysaccharide network.

Cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae produce peptide hormones (a and α) which dramatically affect the physiology, structure, and behavior of cells from the opposite mating type, presumably in preparation for conjugation. Some cell division cycle mutants mimick several of the changes induced by α factor. Accordingly, conditional mutants cdc 28, cdc 36, cdc 37, and cdc 39 undergo arrest in G1, exhibit shmoo morphology and are able to mate when they are transferred to the restrictive temperature. Formation of shmoo cells would require increased synthesis of glycosyl transferases involved in the biosynthesis of cellwall polysaccharides. Accordingly, the authors investigated the effect of G1 arrest on the chemical composition of the cellwall and on the levels of glycosyl transferases. Arrest in G1 was obtained by two methods: addition of α factor, and transfer of a cdc 28 mutant to the restrictive temperature

An easily constructed apparatus that models the effect of penicillin on the structure of bacterial cells is described. Background information and procedures for using the apparatus during a classroom demonstration are included. (JN)

Full Text Available Temperate perennial grasses are important worldwide as a livestock nutritive energy source and a potential feedstock for lignocellulosic biofuel production. The annual temperate grass Brachypodium distanchyon has been championed as a useful model system to facilitate biological research in agriculturally important temperate forage grasses based on phylogenetic relationships. To physically corroborate genetic predictions, we determined the chemical composition profiles of organ-specific cellwalls throughout the development of two common diploid accessions of Brachypodium distanchyon, Bd21-3 and Bd21. Chemical analysis was performed on cellwalls isolated from distinct organs (i.e. leaves, sheaths, stems and roots at three developmental stages of 1 12-day seedling, 2 vegetative-to-reproductive transition, and 3 mature seed-fill. In addition, we have included cellwall analysis of embryonic callus used for genetic transformations. Composition of cellwalls based on components lignin, hydroxycinnamates, uronosyls, neutral sugars, and protein suggests that Brachypodium distanchyon is similar chemically to agriculturally important forage grasses. There were modest compositional differences in hydroxycinnamate profiles between accessions Bd21-3 and Bd21. In addition, when compared to agronomical important C3 grasses, more mature Brachypodium stem cellwalls have a relative increase in glucose of 48% and a decrease in lignin of 36%. Though differences exists between Brachypodium and agronomical important C3 grasses, Brachypodium distanchyon should be still a useful model system for genetic manipulation of cellwall composition to determine the impact upon functional characteristics such as rumen digestibility or energy conversion efficiency for bioenergy production.

Temperate perennial grasses are important worldwide as a livestock nutritive energy source and a potential feedstock for lignocellulosic biofuel production. The annual temperate grass Brachypodium distachyon has been championed as a useful model system to facilitate biological research in agriculturally important temperate forage grasses based on phylogenetic relationships. To physically corroborate genetic predictions, we determined the chemical composition profiles of organ-specific cellwalls throughout the development of two common diploid accessions of Brachypodium distachyon, Bd21-3 and Bd21. Chemical analysis was performed on cellwalls isolated from distinct organs (i.e., leaves, sheaths, stems, and roots) at three developmental stages of (1) 12-day seedling, (2) vegetative-to-reproductive transition, and (3) mature seed fill. In addition, we have included cellwall analysis of embryonic callus used for genetic transformations. Composition of cellwalls based on components lignin, hydroxycinnamates, uronosyls, neutral sugars, and protein suggests that Brachypodium distachyon is similar chemically to agriculturally important forage grasses. There were modest compositional differences in hydroxycinnamate profiles between accessions Bd21-3 and Bd21. In addition, when compared to agronomical important C3 grasses, more mature Brachypodium stem cellwalls have a relative increase in glucose of 48% and a decrease in lignin of 36%. Though differences exist between Brachypodium and agronomical important C3 grasses, Brachypodium distachyon should be still a useful model system for genetic manipulation of cellwall composition to determine the impact upon functional characteristics such as rumen digestibility or energy conversion efficiency for bioenergy production. PMID:23227028

Embryogenic cell lines of Pinus caribaea were isolated from somatic embryogenesis from zygotic embryos. Previous studies showed that the proteins and glycoproteins were characteristic of the embryogenic state. In the present work we were seeking typical feature in the polysaccharide from the cellwalls of embryogenic calli at nine days of culture. Sequential extraction with water, ammonium oxalate, dimethyl sulfoxide, sodium borohydride and 4.3 M potassium hydroxide revealed that the extracted polysaccharides contained high proportions of arabinose and significant amounts of xylose. Fractionation of the hydrosoluble polymers on DEAE cellulose afforded a xylose-rich fraction (80% xylose, 24% glucose and lower properties of fucose and mannose). Methylation analysis and 13C-NMR spectra showed that the glycan backbone consisted of beta 1 --> 4 linked xylosyl residues Similar study of the fractions extracted respectively with DMSO and 4.3 M KOH showed the presence of polydisperse glycoxylans but excluded the presence of xyloglucan in significant amount. This could be a characteristic feature of embryogenic cellswalls of Pinus caribaea or could be typical of cells grown as calluses. In the various fractions obtained from DEAE cellulose chromatography of the alkaline extract the infrequent occurrence of fucoxylans beside an arabinogalactan showed again the unusual nature of the cellwall polymers of this embryogenic lines, which seems to differ greatly from those found in the primary wall of cells from suspension cultures.

The bacterial actin homolog MreB, which is crucial for rod shape determination, forms filaments that rotate around the cell width on the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane. What determines filament association with the membranes or with other cellwall elongation proteins is not known. Using specific chemical and genetic perturbations while following MreB filament motion, we find that MreB membrane association is an actively regulated process that depends on the presence of lipid-linked peptidoglycan precursors. When precursors are depleted, MreB filaments disassemble into the cytoplasm, and peptidoglycan synthesis becomes disorganized. In cells that lack wall teichoic acids but continue to make peptidoglycan, dynamic MreB filaments are observed, although their presence is not sufficient to establish a rod shape. We propose that the cell regulates MreB filament association with the membrane, allowing rapid and reversible inactivation of cellwall enzyme complexes in response to the inhibition of cellwall synthesis.

Cells of the mesocarp of mango cultivar Tommy Atkins were analyzed by Transmission Electron Microscope—TEM to evaluate the effects of doses of 0.5 and 1.0 kGy applied immediately after the fruit and after storage for twenty days at a temperature of 12 °C followed by 5 days of simulated marketing at a temperature of 21 °C. No alteration was found in the structure of the cellwall, middle lamella, and plasma membrane of fruits when analyzed immediately after application of doses. The mesocarp cell structure of the cellwall, middle lamella, and the plasma membrane did however undergo changes after storage. Fruits that received a dose of 0.5 kGy displayed slight changes in cellwall structure and slight disintegration of the middle lamella. Fruits that received a dose of 1.0 kGy displayed more severe changes in the structure of the cellwall, greater middle lamella degradation, and displacement of the plasma membrane.

The first drying of wood cellwalls from the native state has sometimes been described as producing irreversible structural changes which reduce the accessibility to water, a phenomenon often referred to as hornification. This study demonstrates that while changes do seem to take place, these are......The first drying of wood cellwalls from the native state has sometimes been described as producing irreversible structural changes which reduce the accessibility to water, a phenomenon often referred to as hornification. This study demonstrates that while changes do seem to take place...

cotton fibers, which are of both biological and industrial importance. To this end, we attempted to study cotton fiber characteristics together with glycan arrays using regression based approaches. Taking advantage of the comprehensive microarray polymer profiling technique (CoMPP), 32 cotton lines from...... different cotton species were studied. The glycan array was generated by sequential extraction of cellwall polysaccharides from mature cotton fibers and screening samples against eleven extensively characterized cellwall probes. Also, phenotypic characteristics of cotton fibers such as length, strength...

We describe here a methodology that enables the occurrence of cell-wall glycans to be systematically mapped throughout plants in a semi-quantitative high-throughput fashion. The technique (comprehensive microarray polymer profiling, or CoMPP) integrates the sequential extraction of glycans from...... analysis of mutant and wild-type plants, as demonstrated here for the Arabidopsis thaliana mutants fra8, mur1 and mur3. CoMPP was also applied to Physcomitrella patens cellwalls and was validated by carbohydrate linkage analysis. These data provide new insights into the structure and functions of plant...

Tissue specimens from human fibrotic liver obtained by needle biopsy were cultured. Two cell types emerged from the tissue explants. From their morphology and biosynthetic products they resembled smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells from blood vessel walls. In the endothelial cells, factor VIII-associated protein was demonstrated by indirect immunofluorescence. Synthesis of collagen types I and III, basement membrane collagen types IV and V, and fibronectin by both cell types was observed by immunofluorescence microscopy. Homogeneous cultures of smooth muscle cells were observed in subcultures. After incubation with [ 14 C]glycine, collagen was isolated and characterized by CM cellulose chromatography, and consisted mainly of types I and III. These data suggest involvement of mesenchymal cells in hepatic fibrosis; they presumably originate from blood vessel or sinusoidal walls

Dimethyldichlorosilane was used to improve the hydrophobicity of wood surface. The water contact angle of the treated wood surface increased from 85° to 143°, which indicated increased hydrophobicity. The nanomechanical properties of the wood cellwall were evaluated using a nanoindentation test to analyse the hydrophobic mechanism on the nano scale. The elastic modulus of the cellwall was significantly affected by the concentration but the influence of treatment time is insignificant. The hardness of the cellwall for treated samples was significantly affected by both treatment time and concentration. The interaction between treatment time and concentration was extremely significant for the elastic modulus of the wood cellwall.

We observed that α-amylase (Taka-amylase A; TAA) activity in the culture broth disappeared in the later stage of submerged cultivation of Aspergillus oryzae. This disappearance was caused by adsorption of TAA onto the cellwall of A. oryzae and not due to protein degradation by extracellular proteolytic enzymes. To determine the cellwall component(s) that allows TAA adsorption efficiently, the cellwall was fractionated by stepwise alkali treatment and enzymatic digestion. Consequently, alkali-insoluble cellwall fractions exhibited high levels of TAA adsorption. In addition, this adsorption capacity was significantly enhanced by treatment of the alkali-insoluble fraction with β-glucanase, which resulted in the concomitant increase in the amount of chitin in the resulting fraction. In contrast, the adsorption capacity was diminished by treating the cellwall fraction with chitinase. These results suggest that the major component that allows TAA adsorption is chitin. However, both the mycelium and the cellwall demonstrated the inability to allow TAA adsorption in the early stage of cultivation, despite chitin content in the cellwall being identical in both early and late stages of cultivation. These results suggest the existence of unidentified factor(s) that could prevent the adsorption of TAA onto the cellwall. Such factor(s) is most likely removed or diminished from the cellwall following longer cultivation periods.

Full Text Available To survive starvation, the bacterium Bacillus subtilis forms durable spores. The initial step of sporulation is asymmetric cell division, leading to a large mother-cell and a small forespore compartment. After division is completed and the dividing septum is thinned, the mother cell engulfs the forespore in a slow process based on cell-wall degradation and synthesis. However, recently a new cell-wall independent mechanism was shown to significantly contribute, which can even lead to fast engulfment in [Formula: see text] 60 [Formula: see text] of the cases when the cellwall is completely removed. In this backup mechanism, strong ligand-receptor binding between mother-cell protein SpoIIIAH and forespore-protein SpoIIQ leads to zipper-like engulfment, but quantitative understanding is missing. In our work, we combined fluorescence image analysis and stochastic Langevin simulations of the fluctuating membrane to investigate the origin of fast bistable engulfment in absence of the cellwall. Our cell morphologies compare favorably with experimental time-lapse microscopy, with engulfment sensitive to the number of SpoIIQ-SpoIIIAH bonds in a threshold-like manner. By systematic exploration of model parameters, we predict regions of osmotic pressure and membrane-surface tension that produce successful engulfment. Indeed, decreasing the medium osmolarity in experiments prevents engulfment in line with our predictions. Forespore engulfment may thus not only be an ideal model system to study decision-making in single cells, but its biophysical principles are likely applicable to engulfment in other cell types, e.g. during phagocytosis in eukaryotes.

Full Text Available Abstract Background Lignin is an integral component of the plant cellwall matrix but impedes the conversion of biomass into biofuels. The plasticity of lignin biosynthesis should permit the inclusion of new compatible phenolic monomers such as flavonoids into cellwall lignins that are consequently less recalcitrant to biomass processing. In the present study, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG was evaluated as a potential lignin bioengineering target for rendering biomass more amenable to processing for biofuel production. Results In vitro peroxidase-catalyzed polymerization experiments revealed that both gallate and pyrogallyl (B-ring moieties in EGCG underwent radical cross-coupling with monolignols mainly by β–O–4-type cross-coupling, producing benzodioxane units following rearomatization reactions. Biomimetic lignification of maize cellwalls with a 3:1 molar ratio of monolignols and EGCG permitted extensive alkaline delignification of cellwalls (72 to 92% that far exceeded that for lignified controls (44 to 62%. Alkali-insoluble residues from EGCG-lignified walls yielded up to 34% more glucose and total sugars following enzymatic saccharification than lignified controls. Conclusions It was found that EGCG readily copolymerized with monolignols to become integrally cross-coupled into cellwall lignins, where it greatly enhanced alkaline delignification and subsequent enzymatic saccharification. Improved delignification may be attributed to internal trapping of quinone-methide intermediates to prevent benzyl ether cross-linking of lignin to structural polysaccharides during lignification, and to the cleavage of ester intra-unit linkages within EGCG during pretreatment. Overall, our results suggest that apoplastic deposition of EGCG for incorporation into lignin would be a promising plant genetic engineering target for improving the delignification and saccharification of biomass crops.

This work investigates the involvement of local differentiation of cellwall matrix polysaccharides and the role of microtubules in the morphogenesis of mesophyll cells (MCs) of three types (lobed, branched and palisade) in the dicotyledon Vigna sinensis and the fern Asplenium nidus. Homogalacturonan (HGA) epitopes recognized by the 2F4, JIM5 and JIM7 antibodies and callose were immunolocalized in hand-made leaf sections. Callose was also stained with aniline blue. We studied microtubule organization by tubulin immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy. In both plants, the matrix cellwall polysaccharide distribution underwent definite changes during MC differentiation. Callose constantly defined the sites of MC contacts. The 2F4 HGA epitope in V. sinensis first appeared in MC contacts but gradually moved towards the cellwall regions facing the intercellular spaces, while in A. nidus it was initially localized at the cellwalls delimiting the intercellular spaces, but finally shifted to MC contacts. In V. sinensis, the JIM5 and JIM7 HGA epitopes initially marked the cellwalls delimiting the intercellular spaces and gradually shifted in MC contacts, while in A. nidus they constantly enriched MC contacts. In all MC types examined, the cortical microtubules played a crucial role in their morphogenesis. In particular, in palisade MCs, cortical microtubule helices, by controlling cellulose microfibril orientation, forced these MCs to acquire a truncated cone-like shape. Unexpectedly in V. sinensis, the differentiation of colchicine-affected MCs deviated completely, since they developed a cellwall ingrowth labyrinth, becoming transfer-like cells. The results of this work and previous studies on Zea mays (Giannoutsou et al., Annals of Botany 2013; 112: : 1067-1081) revealed highly controlled local cellwall matrix differentiation in MCs of species belonging to different plant groups. This, in coordination with microtubule-dependent cellulose microfibril

To survive starvation, Bacillus subtilis forms durable spores. After asymmetric cell division, the septum grows around the forespore in a process called engulfment, but the mechanism of force generation is unknown. Here, we derived a novel biophysical model for the dynamics of cell-wall remodeling during engulfment based on a balancing of dissipative, active, and mechanical forces. By plotting phase diagrams, we predict that sporulation is promoted by a line tension from the attachment of the septum to the outer cellwall, as well as by an imbalance in turgor pressures in the mother-cell and forespore compartments. We also predict that significant mother-cell growth hinders engulfment. Hence, relatively simple physical principles may guide this complex biological process.

After DNA and proteins, carbohydrates are the third language of life. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to this class of biomolecules, also called sugars or glycans, that can be found on the outer surface of almost all cells and plays a critical role as the social messengers of a

The study evaluated the cellwall carbohydrates fraction in blastoconidia grown in YEPD medium at 30 degrees C and in the conglomerate of true hyphae grown in human serum at 37 degrees C. The clinical isolate obtained from a child with widespread C. albicans infection was used in the study. The cells were broken with glass beads, centrifuged to harvest the cellwall followed by subjection to TFA hydrolysis and in the result of that released monosaccharides were detected by HPAEC-PAD. Both, serum and temperature conditions (37 degrees C) affected germination process influencing the cellwall carbohydrates content when incubation in serum was prolonged from 1 to 18 h. The mannan content of blastoconidia was almost twofold higher compared to filamentous forms (149.25 +/- 299.24 vs 77.26 +/- 122.07). The glucan content was threefold lower in blastoconidia compared to hyphae (251.86 +/- 243.44 vs 755.81 +/- 1299.30). The chitin level was fourfold lower in blastoconidia compared to filaments (23.86 +/- 54.09 vs 106.29 +/- 170.12). The reason for the differences in the carbohydrates content may be related to type of morphology induced in different environmental conditions. Among tested carbohydrates, glucan appeared to be present in appreciably larger amounts in both tested morphological fractions. The ultrastructure of the blastoconidial cellwall revealed striking differences compared to the hyphae indicating the carbohydrates content alterations for wall assembly during hyphal growth at alkaline pH and temp. 37 degrees C. The study provided evidence for the relationship between morphogenesis, cell-cell adhesion induced by serum and changes in the level of carbohydrates content.

Glassy Hair 1 (GLH1) gene that promotes papillae formation on trichome cellwalls was identified as a subunit of the transcriptional mediator complex MED25. The MED25 gene is shown to be expressed in trichomes. The expression of the trichome development marker genes GLABRA2 (GL2) and Ethylene Receptor2 (ETR2) is not affected in the glh1 mutant. Presented data suggest that Arabidopsis MED25 mediator component is likely involved in the transcription of genes promoting papillae deposition in trichomes. The plant cellwall plays an important role in communication, defense, organization and support. The importance of each of these functions varies by cell type. Specialized cells, such as Arabidopsis trichomes, exhibit distinct cellwall characteristics including papillae. To better understand the molecular processes important for papillae deposition on the cellwall surface, we identified the GLASSY HAIR 1 (GLH1) gene, which is necessary for papillae formation. We found that a splice-site mutation in the component of the transcriptional mediator complex MED25 gene is responsible for the near papillae-less phenotype of the glh1 mutant. The MED25 gene is expressed in trichomes. Reporters for trichome developmental marker genes GLABRA2 (GL2) and Ethylene Receptor2 (ETR2) were not affected in the glh1 mutant. Collectively, the presented results show that MED25 is necessary for papillae formation on the cellwall surface of leaf trichomes and suggest that the Arabidopsis MED25 mediator component is likely involved in the transcription of a subset of genes that promote papillae deposition in trichomes.

Full Text Available Abstract Background The usually non-pathogenic soil bacterium Mycobacterium smegmatis is commonly used as a model mycobacterial organism because it is fast growing and shares many features with pathogenic mycobacteria. Proteomic studies of M. smegmatis can shed light on mechanisms of mycobacterial growth, complex lipid metabolism, interactions with the bacterial environment and provide a tractable system for antimycobacterial drug development. The cellwall proteins are particularly interesting in this respect. The aim of this study was to construct a reference protein map for these proteins in M. smegmatis. Results A proteomic analysis approach, based on one dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and LC-MS/MS, was used to identify and characterize the cellwall associated proteins of M. smegmatis. An enzymatic cell surface shaving method was used to determine the surface-exposed proteins. As a result, a total of 390 cellwall proteins and 63 surface-exposed proteins were identified. Further analysis of the 390 cellwall proteins provided the theoretical molecular mass and pI distributions and determined that 26 proteins are shared with the surface-exposed proteome. Detailed information about functional classification, signal peptides and number of transmembrane domains are given next to discussing the identified transcriptional regulators, transport proteins and the proteins involved in lipid metabolism and cell division. Conclusion In short, a comprehensive profile of the M. smegmatis cellwall subproteome is reported. The current research may help the identification of some valuable vaccine and drug target candidates and provide foundation for the future design of preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies against mycobacterial diseases.

Full Text Available Sensitivity of three Scenedesmus strains exposed to aqueous fuel-oil extract (AFOE is strongly strain-dependent S. quadricauda is the most resistant, S. armatus moderately tolerant whereas the most sensitive appears to be S. microspina. The sensitivity of tested species increases parallel with decreasing of cell size and cell number in coenobium. The values of the cell surface/cell volumes ratios only partly explain the above relationships. Electron microscope investigations reveal that the sensitivity may depend on cellwall structure of the strains. Cellwall of all here investigated strains is built of two layers: the inner so-called cellulosic layer and the outer one showing a three-laminar structure (TLS. The latter contains an acetolysis-resistant biopolymer (ARB. These two layers are similar in thickness in the three strains tested, but the surface of Scenedesmus is covered with various epistructures that are characteristic of strains. Some of them as the tightly fitting warty layer of S. armatus and especially the loosely fitting reticulate layer of S. quadricauda may contribute to lower permeability of cellwall. The structure of the rosettes also appears to be correlated with the sensitivity of strains. Presence of invaginations of plasmalemma in areas under rosettes indicates their role in transport processes inside/outside the cells.

Full Text Available Aboveground organs of plants are ultimately derived/generated from the shoot apical meristem (SAM, which is the proliferative tissue located at the apex of the stem. The SAM contains a population of stem cells that provide new cells for organ/tissue formation. The SAM is composed of distinct cell layers and zones with different properties. Primordia of lateral organs develop at the periphery of the SAM. The shoot apex is a dynamic and complex tissue, and as such intercellular communications among cells, layers and zones play significant roles in the coordination of cell proliferation, growth and differentiation to achieve elaborate morphogenesis. Recent findings have highlighted the importance of a number of singling molecules acting in the cellwall space for the intercellular communication, including classic phytohormones and secretory peptides. Moreover, accumulating evidences reveal that cellwall properties and their modifying enzymes modulate hormone actions. In this review, we overview how behaviors of singling molecules and changes of cellwall properties are integrated for the shoot meristem regulation.

Bionumbers and bioestimates are valuable tools in biological research. Here we focus on cellwall-related bionumbers and bioestimates of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the polymorphic, pathogenic fungus Candida albicans. We discuss the linear relationship between cell size and cell ploidy, the correlation between cell size and specific growth rate, the effect of turgor pressure on cell size, and the reason why using fixed cells for measuring cellular dimensions can result in serious underestimation of in vivo values. We further consider the evidence that individual buds and hyphae grow linearly and that exponential growth of the population results from regular formation of new daughter cells and regular hyphal branching. Our calculations show that hyphal growth allows C. albicans to cover much larger distances per unit of time than the yeast mode of growth and that this is accompanied by strongly increased surface expansion rates. We therefore predict that the transcript levels of genes involved in wall formation increase during hyphal growth. Interestingly, wall proteins and polysaccharides seem barely, if at all, subject to turnover and replacement. A general lesson is how strongly most bionumbers and bioestimates depend on environmental conditions and genetic background, thus reemphasizing the importance of well-defined and carefully chosen culture conditions and experimental approaches. Finally, we propose that the numbers and estimates described here offer a solid starting point for similar studies of other cell compartments and other yeast species. PMID:24243791

To distinguish the buffering capacity associated with functional groups in the cellwall from that resulting from metabolic processes, base or acid consumption by live and dead cells of the Gram-negative bacterium Shewanella putrefaciens was measured in a pH stat system. Live cells exhibited fast consumption of acid (pH 4) or base (pH 7, 8, 9, and 10) during the first few minutes of the experiments. At pH 5.5, no acid or base was required to maintain the initial pH constant. The initial amounts of acid or base consumed by the live cells at pH 4, 8, and 10 were of comparable magnitudes as those neutralized at the same pHs by intact cells killed by exposure to gamma radiation or ethanol. Cells disrupted in a French press required higher amounts of acid or base, due to additional buffering by intracellular constituents. At pH 4, acid neutralization by suspensions of live cells stopped after 50 min, because of loss of viability. In contrast, under neutral and alkaline conditions, base consumption continued for the entire duration of the experiments (5 h). This long-term base neutralization was, at least partly, due to active respiration by the cells, as indicated by the build-up of succinate in solution. Qualitatively, the acid-base activity of live cells of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis resembled that of S. putrefaciens. The pH-dependent charging of ionizable functional groups in the cellwalls of the live bacteria was estimated from the initial amounts of acid or base consumed in the pH stat experiments. From pH 4 to 10, the cellwall charge increased from near-zero values to about -4 × 10 -16 mol cell -1 and -6.5 × 10 -16 mol cell -1 for S. putrefaciens and B. subtilis, respectively. The similar cellwall charging of the two bacterial strains is consistent with the inferred low contribution of lipopolysaccharides to the buffering capacity of the Gram-negative cellwall (of the order of 10%).

Full Text Available Abstract Background The MP65 gene of Candida albicans (orf19.1779 encodes a putative β-glucanase mannoprotein of 65 kDa, which plays a main role in a host-fungus relationship, morphogenesis and pathogenicity. In this study, we performed an extensive analysis of a mp65Δ mutant to assess the role of this protein in cellwall integrity, adherence to epithelial cells and biofilm formation. Results The mp65Δ mutant showed a high sensitivity to a range of cellwall-perturbing and degrading agents, especially Congo red, which induced morphological changes such as swelling, clumping and formation of hyphae. The mp65Δ mutant showed an activation of two MAPKs (Mkc1p and Cek1p, a high level of expression of two stress-related genes (DDR48 and SOD5, and a modulated expression of β-glucan epitopes, but no gross changes in cellwall polysaccharide composition. Interestingly, the mp65Δ mutant displayed a marked reduction in adhesion to BEC and Caco-2 cells and severe defects in biofilm formation when compared to the wild type. All of the mentioned properties were totally or partially recovered in a revertant strain, demonstrating the specificity of gene deletion. Conclusions We demonstrate that the MP65 gene of Candida albicans plays a significant role in maintaining cellwall integrity, as well as in adherence to epithelia and biofilm formation, which are major virulence attributes of this fungus.

Probing the mechanical properties of plant cellwall is crucial to understand tissue dynamics. However, the exact symmetry of the mechanical properties of this anisotropic fiber-reinforced composite remains uncertain. For this reason, biologically relevant measurements of the stiffness coefficients on individual living cells are a challenge. For this purpose, we have developed the single-cell optoacoustic nanoprobe (SCOPE) technique, which uses laser-generated acoustic waves to probe the stiffness, thickness and viscosity of live single-cell subcompartments. This all-optical technique offers a sub-micrometer lateral resolution, nanometer in-depth resolution, and allows the non-contact measurement of the mechanical properties of live turgid tissues without any assumption of mechanical symmetry. SCOPE experiments reveal that single-cellwall transverse stiffness in the direction perpendicular to the epidermis layer of onion cells is close to that of cellulose. This observation demonstrates that cellulose microfibrils are the main load-bearing structure in this direction, and suggests strong bonding of microfibrils by hemicelluloses. Altogether our measurement of the viscosity at high frequencies suggests that the rheology of the wall is dominated by glass-like dynamics. From a comparison with literature, we attribute this behavior to the influence of the pectin matrix. SCOPE's ability to unravel cell rheology and cell anisotropy defines a new class of experiments to enlighten cell nano-mechanics.

Agricultural biomaterials such as crop stalks are natural sources of cellulosic fiber and have great potential as reinforced materials in bio-composites. In order to evaluate their potential as materials for reinforcement, the nano-mechanical properties of crop-stalk cellwalls, i.e. those of cotton (Gossypium herbaceu) stalk, soybean (Glycine max) stalk, cassava (...

The effect of high-pressure processing (HPP) on cellwall polysaccharides in berries was investigated. HPP decreased the degree of methyl esterification (DM), probably by activation of pectin methyl esterase (PME), and improved the extractability of pectins. When commercial enzyme mixtures were

To investigate the potential effects of differences between growth locations on the cellwall composition and saccharification efficiency of the bioenergy crop miscanthus, a diverse set of 15 accessions were evaluated in six locations across Europe for the first 3 years following establishment.

Lobe development in the epidermal pavement cells of Arabidopsis thaliana cotyledons and leaves is thought to take place via tip-like growth on the concave side of lobes driven by localized concentrations of actin filaments and associated proteins, with a predicted role for cortical microtubules in establishing the direction of restricted growth at the convex side. We used homologous landmarks fixed to the outer walls of pavement cells and thin-plate spline analysis to demonstrate that lobes form by differential growth of both the anticlinal and periclinal walls. Most lobes formed within the first 24 h of the cotyledons unfurling, during the period of rapid cell expansion. Cortical microtubules adjacent to the periclinal wall were persistently enriched at the convex side of lobes during development where growth was anisotropic and were less concentrated or absent at the concave side where growth was promoted. Alternating microtubule-enriched and microtubule-free zones at the periclinal wall in neighboring cells predicted sites of new lobes. There was no particular arrangement of cortical actin filaments that could predict where lobes would form. However, drug studies demonstrate that both filamentous actin and microtubules are required for lobe formation. PMID:26296967

Enzymatic depolymerization of polysaccharides is a key step in the production of fuels and chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass, and discovery of synergistic biomass-degrading enzyme paradigms will enable improved conversion processes. Historically, revealing insights into enzymatic saccharification mechanisms on plant cellwalls has been hindered by uncharacterized substrates and low resolution.

BACKGROUND: The Candida albicans cellwall is the first point of contact with the host, and its outer surface is heavily enriched in mannoproteins modified through the addition of N- and O-mannan. Previous work, using mutants with gross defects in glycosylation, has clearly identified the importance

The wall of basidiomycetous and related yeasts showed a lamellar structure in sections of both budding cells and hyphae fixed with potassium permanganate. The yeasts also had a typical way of bud formation and septation. These features differ from those recorded for ascomycetous yeasts. In the

A variety of Southern African resurrection plants were surveyed using high-throughput cellwall profiling tools. Species evaluated were the dicotyledons, Myrothamnus flabellifolia and Craterostigma plantagineum; the monocotyledons, Xerophyta viscosa, Xerophyta schlecterii, Xerophyta humilis and t......-arabinans, arabinogalactan proteins and arabinoxylans) as the major contributors in ensuring flexibility is maintained and rehydration is facilitated in these plants....

Recent work has highlighted the importance of movement of chemicals and ions through the wood cellwall. This movement depends strongly on moisture content and is necessary for structural damage mechanisms such as fastener corrosion and wood decay. Here, we present the first measurements of electrical resistance of southern pine at the subcellular level as a function...

Suppression of the lignin-related gene cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR) in the Pinus radiata tracheary element (TE) system impacted both the metabolite profile and the cellwall matrix in CCR-RNAi lines. UPLC-MS/MS-based metabolite profiling identified elevated levels of p-coumaroyl hexose, caffeic acid hexoside and ferulic acid hexoside in CCR-RNAi lines, indicating a redirection of metabolite flow within phenylpropanoid metabolism. Dilignols derived from coniferyl alcohol such as G(8-5)G, G(8-O-4)G and isodihydrodehydrodiconiferyl alcohol (IDDDC) were substantially depleted, providing evidence for CCR's involvement in coniferyl alcohol biosynthesis. Severe CCR suppression almost halved lignin content in TEs based on a depletion of both H-type and G-type lignin, providing evidence for CCR's involvement in the biosynthesis of both lignin types. 2D-NMR studies revealed minor changes in the H:G-ratio and consequently a largely unchanged interunit linkage distribution in the lignin polymer. However, unusual cellwall components including ferulate and unsaturated fatty acids were identified in TEs by thioacidolysis, pyrolysis-GC/MS and/or 2D-NMR in CCR-RNAi lines, providing new insights into the consequences of CCR suppression in pine. Interestingly, CCR suppression substantially promoted pyrolytic breakdown of cellwall polysaccharides, a phenotype most likely caused by the incorporation of acidic compounds into the cellwall matrix in CCR-RNAi lines.

Full Text Available Compression wood is commonly found in Masson pine. To evaluate the mechanical properties of the cellwall of Masson pine compression and opposite wood, nanoindentation was used. The results showed that the average values of hardness and cellwall modulus of elasticity of opposite wood were slightly higher than those of compression wood. With increasing age of the annual ring, the modulus of elasticity showed a negative correlation with microfibril angle, but a weak correlation was observed for hardness. In opposite and compression wood from the same annual ring, the differences in average values of modulus of elasticity and hardness were small. These slight differences were explained by the change of microfibril angle (MFA, the press-in mode of nanoindentation, and the special structure of compression wood. The mechanical properties were almost the same for early, transition, and late wood in a mature annual ring of opposite wood. It can therefore be inferred that the average modulus of elasticity (MOE and hardness of the cellwalls in a mature annual ring were not being affected by cellwall thickness.

Full Text Available Abstract Background Factors that affect flowering vary among different plant species, and in the grasses in particular the exact mechanism behind this transition is not fully understood. The brown midrib (bm mutants of maize (Zea mays L., which have altered cellwall composition, have different flowering dynamics compared to their wild-type counterparts. This is indicative of a link between cellwall biogenesis and flowering. In order to test whether this relationship also exists in other grasses, the flowering dynamics in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L. Moench were investigated. Sorghum is evolutionarily closely related to maize, and a set of brown midrib (bmr mutants similar to the maize bm mutants is available, making sorghum a suitable choice for study in this context. Results We compared the flowering time (time to half-bloom of several different bmr sorghum lines and their wild-type counterparts. This revealed that the relationship between cellwall composition and flowering was conserved in sorghum. Specifically, the mutant bmr7 flowered significantly earlier than the corresponding wild-type control, whereas the mutants bmr2, bmr4, bmr6, bmr12, and bmr19 flowered later than their wild-type controls. Conclusion The change in flowering dynamics in several of the brown midrib sorghum lines provides evidence for an evolutionarily conserved mechanism that links cellwall biosynthesis to flowering dynamics. The availability of the sorghum bmr mutants expands the germplasm available to investigate this relationship in further detail.

Approximately 1% of plant proteins are predicted to be post-translationally modified with a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor that tethers the polypeptide to the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane. While the synthesis and structure of GPI anchors is largely conserved across eukaryotes, the repertoire of functional domains present in the GPI-anchored proteome has diverged substantially. In plants, this includes a large fraction of the GPI-anchored proteome being further modified with plant-specific arabinogalactan (AG) O-glycans. The importance of the GPI-anchored proteome to plant development is underscored by the fact that GPI biosynthetic null mutants exhibit embryo lethality. Mutations in genes encoding specific GPI-anchored proteins (GAPs) further supports their contribution to diverse biological processes occurring at the interface of the plasma membrane and cellwall, including signaling, cellwall metabolism, cellwall polymer cross-linking, and plasmodesmatal transport. Here, we review the literature concerning plant GPI-anchored proteins in the context of their potential to act as molecular hubs that mediate interactions between the plasma membrane and the cellwall and their potential to transduce the signal into the protoplast and thereby activate signal transduction pathways. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Cellwalls were extracted from maize endosperm and separated into different polysaccharide fractions by sequential extraction with solutions of saturated Ba(OH)2, demineralised water and 1 and 4 M KOH. Solubilised polysaccharides were collected after each extraction. Residues were collected

This paper examines phase transformations of water in wood and isolated wood cellwall components using differential scanning calorimetry with the purpose of better understanding "Type II water" or "freezable bound water" that has been reported for cellulose and other hydrophilic polymers. Solid loblolly pine (Pinus taeda...

Orbital wall infarction and subperiosteal haematomas are unusual manifestations of sickling disorders. Here we report an 11-year-old girl with sickle cell anaemia having multiple skull infarctions including the orbital bony structures associated with subperiosteal haematomas. The diagnosis was made by MRI, which showed bone marrow changes and associated haemorrhagic collections. The patient was successfully managed without surgical intervention. (orig.)

To determine the properties of Staphylococcus aureus contributing to its pyrogenicity, we compared, in human monocytes, endogenous pyrogen production stimulated by heat-killed S. aureus with that stimulated by purified S. aureus cellwalls or by particulate peptidoglycan prepared from the same strain. Peptidoglycan, but not the purified cellwall preparation, was found comparable to S. aureus as an endogenous pyrogen stimulus. This finding was associated with a more effective monocyte phagocytosis of S. aureus and peptidoglycan as compared with that of purified cellwalls. Lysostaphin digestion of peptidoglycan markedly reduced its pyrogenicity. To test whether the chemical composition of the ingested particles is important, latex particles were tested as possible stimuli for monocyte endogenous pyrogen release. Although 40 to 68% of monocytes ingested latex particles during the first hour, there was no evidence of endogenous pyrogen activity in the supernatant even when supernatants equivalent to 5.2 X 10(6) monocytes were tested. This study demonstrates that the pyrogenic moiety of the S. aureus cellwall resides in the peptidoglycan component. Phagocytosis is not in itself a pyrogenic stimulus, but rather serves as an effective mechanism to bring about contact between the chemical stimulus and the monocyte.

Beta-glucan, one of the major cellwall components of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae), has been found to enhance immune functions. At present study, we developed an optimal procedure to extract and purify beta-glucan. At first, yeast cells were grown in sabouraud dextrose agar and then cultured in yeast extract-peptone-glucose (YPG) broth. After incubation, cells were harvested, washed and disrupted by means of sonication method. The obtained cellwalls were used to prepare alkali-soluble beta-glucan (glucan-S1). In this regard, 2% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 3% acetic acid were used in alkaline-acid extraction, respectively. This preparation contained 2.4% protein. In the next step, DEAE sephacel chromatography was used to remove remaining proteins (glucan-S2). Subsequently this preparation was applied into concanavalin-A sepharose column to remove manann. Finally, beta-glucan free of mannoprotein complexes was prepared (glucan-S3).

The graviresponse of the leaf-sheath pulvinus of oat (Avena sativa) involves an asymmetric growth response and asymmetric processes involving degradation of starch and cellwall synthesis. Cellular and biochemical events were studied by investigation of the activities of related enzymes and changes in cellwalls and their constituents. It is suggested that an osmotic potential gradient acts as the driving factor for growth, while wall extensibility is a limiting factor in pulvinus growth.

Summary The bacterial actin homolog MreB, which is critical for rod shape determination, forms filaments that rotate around the cell width on the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane. What determines filament association with the membranes or with other cellwall elongation proteins is not known. Using specific chemical and genetic perturbations while following MreB filament motion, we find that MreB membrane association is an actively regulated process that depends on the presence of li...

Clear cell sarcoma, also called malignant melanoma of soft parts, is an uncommon neoplasm that involves tendons or aponeuroses of the lower extremity. The CT features of a clear cell sarcoma arising from the abdominal wall with later peritoneal dissemination are described. Peritoneal sarcomatosis from soft tissue sarcomas is a very rare condition previously unreported in the radiologic literature. Metastases to peritoneal surfaces must therefore be considered a possible site for systemic dissemination of soft tissue sarcomas. (orig.)

Melanin is a virulence factor for many pathogenic fungal species,including Cryptococcus neoformans. Melanin is deposited in the cellwall, and melanin isolated from this fungus retains the shape of the cells, resulting in hollow spheres called ``ghosts''. In this study, atomic force, scanning electron, and transmission electron microscopy revealed that melanin ghosts are covered with roughly spherical granular particles approximately 40-130 nm in diameter, and that the melanin is arranged in ...

Full Text Available The monosaccharide L-fucose (L-Fuc is a common component of plant cellwall polysaccharides and other plant glycans, including the hemicellulose xyloglucan, pectic rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I and rhamnogalacturonan-II (RG-II, arabinogalactan proteins, and N-linked glycans. Mutations compromising the biosynthesis of many plant cellwall polysaccharides are lethal, and as a result, small molecule inhibitors of plant cellwall polysaccharide biosynthesis have been developed because these molecules can be applied at defined concentrations and developmental stages. In this study, we characterize novel small molecule inhibitors of plant fucosylation. 2-fluoro-L-fucose (2F-Fuc analogs caused severe growth phenotypes when applied to Arabidopsis seedlings, including reduced root growth and altered root morphology. These phenotypic defects were dependent upon the L-Fuc salvage pathway enzyme L-Fucose Kinase/ GDP-L-Fucose Pyrophosphorylase (FKGP, suggesting that 2F-Fuc is metabolically converted to the sugar nucleotide GDP-2F-Fuc, which serves as the active inhibitory molecule. The L-Fuc content of cellwall matrix polysaccharides was reduced in plants treated with 2F-Fuc, suggesting that this molecule inhibits the incorporation of L-Fuc into these polysaccharides. Additionally, phenotypic defects induced by 2F-Fuc treatment could be partially relieved by the exogenous application of boric acid, suggesting that 2F-Fuc inhibits RG-II biosynthesis. Overall, the results presented here suggest that 2F-Fuc is a metabolically incorporated inhibitor of plant cellular fucosylation events, and potentially suggest that other 2-fluorinated monosaccharides could serve as useful chemical probes for the inhibition of cellwall polysaccharide biosynthesis.

The monosaccharide L-fucose (L-Fuc) is a common component of plant cellwall polysaccharides and other plant glycans, including the hemicellulose xyloglucan, pectic rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I) and rhamnogalacturonan-II (RG-II), arabinogalactan proteins, and N-linked glycans. Mutations compromising the biosynthesis of many plant cellwall polysaccharides are lethal, and as a result, small molecule inhibitors of plant cellwall polysaccharide biosynthesis have been developed because these molecules can be applied at defined concentrations and developmental stages. In this study, we characterize novel small molecule inhibitors of plant fucosylation. 2-fluoro-L-fucose (2F-Fuc) analogs caused severe growth phenotypes when applied to Arabidopsis seedlings, including reduced root growth and altered root morphology. These phenotypic defects were dependent upon the L-Fuc salvage pathway enzyme L-Fucose Kinase/ GDP-L-Fucose Pyrophosphorylase (FKGP), suggesting that 2F-Fuc is metabolically converted to the sugar nucleotide GDP-2F-Fuc, which serves as the active inhibitory molecule. The L-Fuc content of cellwall matrix polysaccharides was reduced in plants treated with 2F-Fuc, suggesting that this molecule inhibits the incorporation of L-Fuc into these polysaccharides. Additionally, phenotypic defects induced by 2F-Fuc treatment could be partially relieved by the exogenous application of boric acid, suggesting that 2F-Fuc inhibits RG-II biosynthesis. Overall, the results presented here suggest that 2F-Fuc is a metabolically incorporated inhibitor of plant cellular fucosylation events, and potentially suggest that other 2-fluorinated monosaccharides could serve as useful chemical probes for the inhibition of cellwall polysaccharide biosynthesis. PMID:26414071

Full Text Available The cyst nematode Heterodera schachtii infects roots of Arabidopsis plants and establishes feeding sites called syncytia, which are the only nutrient source for nematodes. Development of syncytia is accompanied by changes in cellwall structures including the development of cellwall ingrowths. UDP-glucuronic acid is a precursor of several cellwall polysaccharides and can be produced by UDP-glucose dehydrogenase through oxidation of UDP-glucose. Four genes in Arabidopsis encode this enzyme. Promoter::GUS analysis revealed that UGD2 and UGD3 were expressed in syncytia as early as 1 dpi while expression of UGD1 and UGD4 could only be detected starting at 2 dpi. Infection assays showed no differences between Δugd1 and Δugd4 single mutants and wild type plants concerning numbers of males and females and the size of syncytia and cysts. On single mutants of Δugd2 and Δugd3, however, less and smaller females, and smaller syncytia formed compared to wild type plants. The double mutant ΔΔugd23 had a stronger effect than the single mutants. These data indicate that UGD2 and UGD3 but not UGD1 and UGD4 are important for syncytium development. We therefore studied the ultrastructure of syncytia in the ΔΔugd23 double mutant. Syncytia contained an electron translucent cytoplasm with degenerated cellular organelles and numerous small vacuoles instead of the dense cytoplasm as in syncytia developing in wild type roots. Typical cellwall ingrowths were missing in the ΔΔugd23 double mutant. Therefore we conclude that UGD2 and UGD3 are needed for the production of cellwall ingrowths in syncytia and that their lack leads to a reduced host suitability for H. schachtii resulting in smaller syncytia, lower number of developing nematodes, and smaller females.